No. 11 Ventura topples No. 20 Vaqueros, 94-66

Ventura won the second half 56-35 on Saturday night on the way to a 94-66 women's basketball win over SBCC at the VC Athletic Event Center.

Madison Kast led the 11th-ranked Pirates (16-4, 2-0) with 18 points and eight rebounds. Ventura dominated the boards with a 52-21 advantage, including 23-6 at the offensive end. They also won the shooting battle, 46.5% to 33.9%.

The Pirates made 24 of 35 free throws and SBCC was 17-28. The Vaqueros committed a season-high 26 fouls and two players fouled out.

SBCC, ranked No. 20 in the state, was playing its first game in 36 days. The Vaqueros were missing two starters and had only seven players for their WSC North opener.

The Vaqueros had five weeks off after two teams dropped out of the WSC North, making it a five-team division and causing massive re-scheduling and a delay to the start of the conference season.

Jordan Parkhurst scored a season-high 25 points for the Vaqueros, who had their six-game win streak snapped and fell to 12-4 overall and 0-1 in conference. The 5-8 freshman from Dana Point was 7-18 from the field and 10-16 from the free-throw line.

Alondra Jimenez, a sophomore guard from Santa Barbara High, scored 11 of her 22 points in the fourth quarter and dished out four assists.

"We played a great game without two starters," said coach Sandrine Krul. "Our seven players battled every minute and that's what I care about. Those seven never quit and that's why I love coaching this team. They give me 100%, no matter what."

The Vaqueros trailed 38-31 at halftime, then Ventura took the third quarter by 13 points, 33-20, to stretch the lead to 20 at 71-51.

Santa Barbara is playing its first three games on the road in WSC North action. The Vaqueros will travel to Oxnard on Wednesday at 5 p.m., then go to No. 2 Moorpark on Saturday for a 1 p.m. contest.