Saddleback tops Vaqueros 75-63 in San Diego semifinal

Saddleback closed the first half on an 18-4 run on Saturday afternoon and went on to beat SBCC 75-63 in the championship semifinals of the Knights' Colbert Classic at San Diego City College.

Destinee King recorded a season-high 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Vaqueros (6-5), who led 19-18 at the end of the first quarter. They extended it to 25-20 on a 3-pointer by Destiny Renteria with 7:06 to go in the first half.

The Gauchos (8-3) went on a 21-4 burst in the next eight minutes to build a 41-29 lead early in the third quarter. Irma Ealy led the Gauchos with 25 points and eight rebounds.

Saddleback, ranked No. 11 in Southern Cal, outshot the Vaqueros 48.4 to 35.8 percent but SBCC won the rebound battle, 48-32. Half of the Vaqueros' rebounds were offensive (24) and King had a team-high six.

The Vaqueros commited 29 turnovers, leading to 25 points.

"We outrebound them and limit their 3-point shooting (1-of-18) per our game plan and then we kill ourselves with turnovers," said coach Sandrine Krul. "Destinee played awesome and Morgan Giove didn't have a great shooting night but she played hard every minute she was in there."

King made 10-of-26 shots and was 7-8 from the free-throw line. Stella Dulay added nine points and Jocelin Petatan had six points and five rebounds. Jada Clark snagged eight rebounds, including four on the offensive end. Giove collected four points, five boards and two blocks in 17 minutes.

The Vaqueros will take on L.A. Southwest (4-7) on Sunday at noon in the third-place game. San Diego City beat L.A. Southwest 68-47 on Saturday.