No. 16 Ventura shoots past Vaqueros in WSC debut, 64-51

Ventura College scored the first 12 points of the third quarter on Saturday night and went on to down SBCC 64-51 in a WSC North women's basketball opener at the VC Athletic Event Center.

The Pirates, ranked 16th in the state, have won two straight and six of the last seven to improve to 16-7. The 25th-ranked Vaqueros are 12-6 and 0-1.

Ventura outshot the Vaqueros 60% to 33.3% in the third quarter when they doubled up the visitors, 22-11.

The Pirates enjoyed a plus-11 advantage in free throws, hitting 16-23 while the Vaqueros made 5-9.

Sophomore guard Aaliyah Pauling led Santa Barbara with 22 points and eight rebounds. She made 9-18 from the field and 3-8 from long distance. Sierra Cavaletto added nine points for the Vaqueros, who led 30-29 at halftime.

"We played so well for 28 minutes," said coach Sandrine Krul. "We played hard and together. Then we didn't execute in the third quarter. You can't give up 12 straight points and then play catch-up."

Talia Taufaasau played all 40 minutes and topped the Pirates with 24 points, four rebounds and five assists.

After the Vaqueros outshot Ventura 48.0 to 31.3% in the first half, the Pirates turned the tables with a 48.0 second-half percentage (12-25) compared to 29.2% (7-24) for SBCC.

The Vaqueros will host No. 1 Moorpark (19-1, 1-0) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.