In its first road test in the CIF boys basketball playoffs, Santa Barbara High passed with flying colors and is advancing to the 3A Division semifinals.
The top-seeded Dons pulled away from Bishop Amat, 62-42, in a tough quarterfinal game Tuesday night at Bishop Amat.
Santa Barbara (25-2) will play at Oak Park in a semifinal game on Friday. Oak Park won at Cabrillo, 83-78, on Tuesday.
Jack Baker led the Dons with 19 points and 15 rebounds. The scoring of Bolden Brace gave the team a huge lift. The sophomore knocked down three 3-pointers en route to 13 points. His outside scoring was key as Bishop Amat paid close attention to long-range shooting Isaiah Tapia.
Chris Wagonhurst added 10 points and Noah Burke had nine for Santa Barbara, which had its lowest scoring output of the playoffs.
“We are very thankful to get out of there with a win,” Santa Barbara coach David Bregante said. “(Bishop Amat) took a lot of stuff away from us. It was an extremely physical game.
The Dons were ahead 15-12 after the first period but managed to build their lead to 34-22 by halftime.
“Chris Wagonhurst got us going half way through the first quarter after a slow start and had a tremendous game for us on both ends of the court” said Bregante.
Brace buried a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter as the Dons started to pull away from the Lancers.
“We finally started to get going in the second half after we started to execute and Bolden knocked down a couple of threes.”
The Dons were in control in the fourth quarter.
