Points in the paint were going to be tough to come by for the Santa Barbara High boys basketball team against the big, physical front line of Oaks Christian.
Fortunately for the Dons they have a special player like Bolden Brace, who can score from anywhere on the court. The junior carried the offensive load on Wednesday night, knocking down seven 3-pointers, scoring 10 consecutive points in the fourth quarter and finishing with 31 points to lead Santa Barbara to a gratifying 60-58 non-league victory at J.R. Richards Gym.
The Dons felt gratified because the win came against a quality opponent.
“We’ve lost games against good teams, so it was good to beat a team that was ranked pretty high,” said Brace.
Brace was spectacular in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 points, including the stretch of 10 in a row after the scored was tied 44-all. He knocked down a 3-pointer to start the run, hit a two-point jumper off the weave, buried another trey and made two free throws.
“I was feeling really good the whole day,” he said. “I came in relaxed and my teammates were getting me the ball. When we hit that stretch, everybody was getting pretty excited and I just felt that energy.”
Oaks Christian coach Richard Hill was impressed.
“He had 31, which is more than half of their points,” Hill said of Brace.”We threw everything at him. We can’t point fingers and we don’t make excuses, we just tip our hats to a guy who plays lights-out basketball. He’s a future D-1 player and we knew that coming in, and we had everything planned. We contained him in the first half and then he got hot. Then we went to a man-to-man and trapped him and he still stayed hot.”
“He’s that kind of a player,” Santa Barbara coach David Bregante said. “He can take over a game. He’s capable of changing the whole offensive game.”
Brace made 7 of 11 from 3-point range and 10-17 shots overall. He had six assists and 4 rebounds, including a clutch defensive board after a missed Oaks Christian shot with under 30 seconds left and the Dons leading 54-50. He also was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-line, sinking two of them with nine seconds left to secure the win.
The Dons did a good job moving the ball and finding Brace for open shots.
“They know what side of the bread is buttered,” said Bregante.
Besides the scoring of Brace, the Dons (15-3) got some tough defensive play from Chris Givens. He shut down Oaks Christian guard Ryan Hiepler in the second half. Hiepler scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half, helping the Lions take a 27-24 lead.
“Chris Givens did a really good job blocking out 44 (Hiepler). I think we shut him out in the second half, which was key for us,” said Bregante.
Max Henderson also played tough defense on Hiepler and scored nine points.
Tyler Harris added 13 points for Oaks Christian (5-5).
The game marked the debut of Nick Busch in a Dons uniform. The 6-6 transfer from Bishop Diego was eligible to play until this month. He scored 10 points and had five rebounds. He scored a key bucket in the fourth quarter off a lob pass from Brace to give the Dons a 56-48 lead.
“I’ve been playing with Nick for quite a while and it was kind of a homecoming,” said Brace. “It was fun. I’ve been looking forward it.”
Bregante was pleased with Busch’s performance. “I think Nick Busch played a really good game for his first time playing in a while. He got 10 points for us. He’s going to be rusty for a while but he’s going to be all right,” he said.
Bregante called Oaks Christian was the most physical team the Dons have faced this season. Santa Barbara center Ben Clay, who is 6-3, 220, looked small against the brawny Lions.
“They were bigger and stronger than he was, and he’s big and strong,” Bregante said of Clay, who struggled to score inside but made a clutch 17-foot jumper down the stretch.
“They were pretty big,” said Brace. “Coming in, we saw their size on MaxPreps and we knew it was going to be a tough game inside. And I knew that I was going to have to play my game and I was able to do that.”
The Dons face another tough opponent on Saturday when they host Righetti and Stanford-bound Cameron Walker.
