No. 2 Chaffey shoots past Vaqueros 66-40

Chaffey broke up a tight men's basketball game with a 16-3 run midway through the second half on Thursday night and went on to hand SBCC a 66-40 setback in the opening round of the Fullerton Classic.

The Panthers, ranked No. 2 in Southern Cal, improved to 4-0 while the Vaqueros fell to 0-3.

Chaffey led 24-19 at halftime and was ahead 32-26 with 14:11 to play. That's when they scored 16 of the next 19 points and grabbed a 48-29 lead on a 3-pointer by Brandon Franklin with 7:39 to play.

Freshman forward Jonathan Montez hit 5-7 from the field and topped the Vaqueros with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Chaffey shot 35.5 percent and the Vaqueros 32.5. The big difference came from the 3-point arc where the Panthers made 9-of-32 for 27 points. After making just 2-17 in the first half, Chaffey hit nearly 50 percent (7-15) from long distance in the second half.

The Vaqueros were 2-9 from long range and committed 24 turnovers leading to 25 points.

"Our plan was to zone them and make them take long shots and it worked in the first half," said coach Morris Hodges. "We were only six points down and then they went on that 16-3 run in the second half. We had seven turnovers during that stretch and that's too many empty trips."

Santa Barbara continued to struggle from the free-throw line, making just 54.5 percent (12-22).

SBCC will take on Bakersfield at 1 p.m. on Friday in a consolation semifinal.