Sean Keyes scored all 15 of his points in the second half on Tuesday and SBCC downed Glendale 55-50 for its first men’s basketball win of the year.
Cody Williams added nine points for Santa Barbara (1-4) and hit four three throws in the final 8.9 seconds to preserve the victory in the Vaqueros’ home opener.
“It’s a relief to get our first win,” said Keyes, a 6-3 freshman from Inglewood. “We deserved it. We broke down what the other team did well. Everybody was hungry for the win.”
Alex Koutroubis had eight points and seven rebounds while 6-7 center Thomas Walker collected eight points and four boards. The Vaqueros won the rebound battle 43-35 and only committed 10 turnovers.
Juwan Thomas led Glendale (0-3) with 19 points while Chris Hines had 11 points and seven rebounds. Thomas hit a triple to pull the visitors within two, 47-45, with 2:17 left. Walker dropped in a 10-foot jump hook and Keyes hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to give Santa Barbara a 51-45 advantage with 30.8 seconds to go.
Dillon Biggs banked in a long 3 for the visitors, cutting the deficit to 53-50 with 3.2 seconds left. Williams was fouled immediately and he iced it with two free throws with 1.6 ticks on the clock. Williams made 4-5 free throws and Keyes was 5-7.
“We played good first halves in our previous games but we hadn’t been able to put two good halves together,” said coach Morris Hodges. “We started off well and they fought back. A real key in the second half was when they started off on an 11-0 run, we were able to respond.
“We made some substitutions and our bench play was excellent.”
SBCC’s reserves outscored their counterparts 21-7.
SBCC will host El Camino on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 5 p.m.
