Bryndon Wilson scored 14 points on Thursday and Tejon Williams and Martin Pederson added nine apiece as SBCC rallied to beat L.A. Valley 67-60 in its men’s basketball season opener.
Wilson, a 5-8 freshman guard from Long Beach Millikan, came off the bench to score 14 points in 16 minutes. He hit 3-4 from 3-point range and Pederson canned a key 3-pointer to put the Vaqueros ahead 61-58 with 1:20 to play in the first-round game of the Ventura We Play Hard Tournament.
Tejon Williams, who hit 7-8 free throws, added a free throw for a four-point lead and Pederson drained two more at the 22-second mark to make it 64-58.
SBCC trailed 31-26 at the half and was down by 10 on several occasions in the second half, the latest one coming at 43-33 with 14 minutes to play.
The Vaqueros went on a 10-0 run in the next 3½ minutes to pull even at 43. They were down 56-52 with five minutes to go before finishing on a 15-4 run.
Santa Barbara outshot the Monarchs 46.7 to 29 percent in the second half and 40.4 to 32.4 percent for the game.
“The guys showed a lot of resiliency and they fought back,” said coach Morris Hodges, who’s starting his 26th year at the helm. “We played great defense in the last two minutes, holding them to four straight trips without a point.”
Fifteen Vaqueros played in the opener and nine got in the scorebook. Sophomore forward Cody Williams had eight points and six rebounds and Adrian Humphrey added eight points and five boards off the bench.
The Vaqueros will take on Ventura or Pasadena in Friday’s second semifinal at 7 p.m.
