SAN BENITO — It was an ugly game for the San Benito Greyhounds on the offensive side of the ball, but defense ultimately paved the way for them as they defeated the visiting Donna Redskins 47-33 on Tuesday night.
The Greyhounds looked sluggish at times on offense thanks to the Redskins’ defense, which did not allowing much penetration in the paint.
The Donna defensive effort was for naught, however, as San Benito held the Redskins to just 12 second-half points on three field goals in the second half and forced turnovers that led to easy points.
“We like to pride ourselves on defense because that’s the reputation we’ve been trying to establish in my 10 years here with the San Benito program,” Greyhounds head coach Eddie Abrego said. “The boys know our expectations and it created points for us tonight. I tell the guys that we don’t need the offense if the defense can create points for you; that’s basically what happened tonight.”
In the first half, the ’Hounds lived on the perimeter and it showed in the second quarter as three of their four field goals were from downtown.
San Benito hit five three-point shots in the first half, but made just one the rest of the way.
“Our boys get rattled,” Abrego said. “We hit a couple of threes in the beginning and (they) think that that’s the game plan and it’s not. At half, I redirected them to work from the inside out. I just wanted them to get more movement and they did that in the second half.”
Five quick points to start the second quarter put them up 16-7, but a 7-0 Redskins run made the score 16-14.
The ’Hounds hit two more threes in a row to push the lead back up to eight, but Donna’s defense tightened and another run sent them to the break down 22-21.
Donna’s Joel Ramirez scored eight points in the second quarter, including a pair of threes to help keep the Redskins close at the break.
San Benito put the game out of reach with a 7-0 run to begin the third quarter to make it a 29-21 game. Donna could never get inside of six points the rest of the way.
San Benito’s Joshua Conde sank three shots from downtown and finished with a team-high 11 points.
Teammate Ryan Reza had a big fourth quarter as he hit a pair of shots and sank three free throws for all of his seven points on the night.
Donna’s Ramirez led all scorers with 15 and was 7 of 8 from the free-throw line.