Jordan Belton scored 15 points, Devin Wingo added 11 and Kyle Vallejo had 10 as the San Benito High boys basketball team earned its first victory of 2009 when it defeated Liberty of Brentwood 58-50 on Friday at the 16th annual Coach Wilson Memorial Tournament in Pebble Beach.
The victory evens the Balers' record at 1-1, and provides new head coach Tracy Carpenter with his first "W" at San Benito High.
"We played better," Carpenter said simply. "We played harder and a little bit smarter and we maintained the intensity throughout the game."
On Thursday, San Benito lost its season opener to River Valley by a 64-58 margin after it was outscored by the Yuba City school 19-12 in the third quarter.
The Balers reversed their fortunes on Friday against the Liberty Lions, however. Although the Brentwood school grabbed a 20-16 lead after the first quarter, San Benito tightened its defense and kept Liberty to single-digit point totals in both the second and fourth quarters.
"I was pleased with the effort and the focus," said Carpenter, who noted the difficulty of opening the regular season with a tournament, which doesn't allow for much practice time in between games.
"But we really clamped down on them well," Carpenter added. "I hope we'll be able to have a really good defensive team."
The defensive effort was apparent on Friday. In the second quarter, the Balers outscored Liberty 13-7 to take a 29-27 lead at the break, then put the Lions away in the fourth with a 15-6 quarter.
While Eric Elayda provided nine points for the Balers - one night removed from scoring 25 against River Valley - Belton's team-high of 15 was done mostly from behind the arc. Belton sunk three 3-pointers in the game.
Cooper Sepulveda, meanwhile, had seven points for San Benito.
The Balers will continue at the Coach Wilson Memorial Tournament on Saturday. San Benito is scheduled to play Woodside Priory at Robert Louis Stevenson in Pebble Beach.
Tip-off is 2 p.m.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SB 16 13 14 15 58
LU 20 7 17 6 50
San Benito (58) - J. Belton 2 3 2-2 15, K. Vallejo 3 1 1-6 10, T. Rickard 0 1 1-2 4, C. Sepulveda 2 0 3-4 7, E. Elayda 2 1 2-2 9, D. Wingo 5 0 1-4 11, E. Olbring 1 0 0-0 2.
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