Second-half spurt sinks Vaqueros, 97-77

Santa Ana went on a 32-12 second-half run on Friday night to build a 17-point lead and went on to beat SBCC 97-77 in a women's basketball game at the Santa Ana Tournament.

The Dons (6-3) led 29-24 after the first quarter and 45-41 at the half. The Vaqueros (4-5) rallied to take a 58-55 lead on a Jocelin Petatan layup with 2:55 to go in the third. Santa Ana ended the period on an 11-1 run, however, and then opened the last quarter with a 21-11 surge to expand the lead to 87-70 with 4:13 to play.

Destinee King and Jeanie Pattison led the Vaqueros with 17 points and 10 rebounds each. Elissa Root added 13 points and Petatan had nine points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Blaysen Varnadoe led six Dons in double figures with 18 points and nine rebounds. Santa Ana outhot the Vaqueros 52.6 to 35.3 percent in the fourth quarter.

"What a game, it was a track meet," said Vaquero coach Sandrine Krul. "We had momentum back and forth for the first three quarters, then we just missed shots in the fourth. It was a great team effort."

The field-goal shooting was fairly close (42.1 to 37.8 percent in the Dons' favor) but SBCC had more fouls (28-15), leading to a minus 15 in made foul shots. Santa Ana was 26-37 from the charity stripe while the Vaqueros were 11-17.

The Vaqueros commited 22 turnovers, leading to 29 points. They enjoyed a decisive 26-10 advantage in fast-break points.

Santa Barbara will take on WSC North rival Moorpark in Saturday's third-place game at 2 p.m.