Late rally falls a point short in 74-73 loss

After trailing by nine with 1:20 to play on Saturday afternoon, SBCC staged a stellar rally that came up one point short in a 74-73 men's basketball loss to Barstow in the Wild West Shootout at West L.A.

The Vaqueros (1-4) had five players in double figures, led by 6-8 forward Evan Tillman who scored 15 on 6-11 shooting. Tejon Williams nearly had a triple double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Bryndon Wilson added 14 points while Martin Pedersen and Robert Hutchins had 10 apiece.

The Vaqueros trailed 38-33 at halftime.

Santa Barbara was down 74-65 with 80 seconds left when Tejon Williams hit two of three free throws. After a turnover, Wilson drained a 3-pointer on an assist from Pedersen and the lead was down to four.

Pedersen hit two free throws at the 0:33 mark to pull the Vaqueros within a bucket. After a steal, Williams made one of two foul shots to make it 74-73.

Barstow (2-5) threw the ball out-of-bounds against the press and Wilson had a chance to put SBCC ahead but misfired on a shot in the lane with six seconds left. The Vikings missed two free throws and a long 3 by Wilson was off the mark.

"We really fought back after a tough loss last night," said coach Morris Hodges. "We made some mistakes and some ill-advised fouls when the game was tied in the late stages. Then we showed great resiliency in battling back."

The score was 63-all with four minutes to go but the Vaqueros commited three turnovers and Barstow went on an 11-2 run to take control.

Barstow (2-5) outshot the Vaqueros 42.4 to 35.6 percent and hit 10-18 from 3-point country while the Vaqueros were 8-26.

Santa Barbara is off until Friday, Dec. 4 when it travels to play Grossmont in El Cajon in the 44th annual Grossmont Tournament at 6 p.m.