Cabrillo coach Gary West wanted his team to get out to a quick lead at home against Santa Ynez. They did — but it didn’t last.

The Pirates trailing 30-10 with 3:18 remaining in the second quarter came roaring back, defeating the Conquistadores 59-57 with an overtime win in the boys basketball Los Padres League opener for both teams.

The Conqs trailed 1-0 before going on a 16-0 run. When Johnny Henno scored for the Pirates at 2:15 it was the first field goal of the game for his team.

Good rebounding and quickly moving the ball up court helped the Conqs build the big first quarter lead. Behind three long 3-point baskets from David Terrones, Cabrillo led 21-7 after one.

The three baskets were all that Terrones would make in the game as the Santa Ynez zone began to slow down the Cabrillo offense.

“Cabrillo has been beating up on Santa Ynez for a number of years,” said Pirates coach Jeff Reck, “and I think our guys had some major jitters coming in to this place.

“I talked about composure before the game and we weren’t — but as the game went on, we got more and more composed and started playing basketball after that.”

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With the Pirates trailing 30-10, Tyler Shean hit a basket at the 3:18 mark and closed out the half on an 11-2 run.

Cabrillo led 32-21 at the break and West told his team, the beginning of the second half was going to be key.

“The first four minutes are always crucial the second half,” West explained. “Our game plan was to watch Todd Whitmore and make sure he didn’t hit a couple threes — and he hit a couple in a row because we were not aware of where he was.”

In fact the Pirates scored the first eight points of the second half with Whitmore’s 3-pointers, to pull to within 32-29.

“Whitmore is our shooter and he was 0-for-8 in the first half,” Reck said. “Then he buried those two threes to start the second half and that was huge.”

Conner Reck and Henno also hit 3-pointers in the third quarter as Santa Ynez outscored Cabrillo 22-7. They took their first lead since the 1-0 score with 40 seconds remaining and led 43-39 going into the fourth.

The Conqs fought back with Terrence Phillips finding gaps in the Santa Ynez zone and scored two baskets and twice found an open Curt Rosson under the basket for two lay-ups. Balfour Brown pulled down two big offensive rebounds and scored twice in the fourth.

Meanwhile the Santa Ynez matchup zone did not allow Terrones to get a shot off.

“They are going to do that to David,” West said. “He is such a good player that he warrants that attention.”

Henno scored 11 of his team high 18 points to lead the Pirates and he was the only one on his team to score in double figures, while also pulling down 10 rebounds. But three different players stepped up at various times to spark Santa Ynez.

Eric Becker scored eight of his nine points in the second quarter, most in the closing moments of the half, while Whitmore stepped up in the third quarter when he made his two 3-point baskets. And Justin Peters was huge in the overtime scoring two lay-ups.

“It was a huge team effort,” Reck said. “This is a big win for us — it’s very important.”

Phillips scored nine points after the half to lead the Conqs with 13 points. Rosson and Brown both added 11 and Brown had three blocked shots. Terrones finished with nine points that all came on the 3-pointers in the first quarter.

“I think our youth started to come out,” West said. “And we kind of lost our composure a little bit. Defensively we just didn’t execute down the stretch — we have to play smarter defensively.

“Tonight I have to take a positive out of it and that is that this helped us grow up for the future a lot.”

The Conqs travel to Morro Bay on Friday, while Santa Ynez hosts St. Joseph.

St. Joseph 61, Morro Bay 59

The Knights overhauled the Pirates in the fourth quarter and secured the win in this LPL opener at St. Joseph’s Hofschulte Gymnasium.

St. Joseph, down 45-38 as the fourth quarter started, out-scored Morro Bay 23-14 those last eight minutes.

Ryan Smalley led the Knights (3-11 overall) with 17 points. Rodmer Lomboy and KJ Cusack scored 11 points each for St. Joseph.

Atascadero 64, AG 50

Logan Allen led three Greyhounds players in double figures with 20 points as Atascadero stretched its PAC-7 League record to 2-0.

Alex Wolf scored 14 points for the Greyhounds (10-5 overall), and Dane Atkinson added 11. Tanner Hinek led Arroyo Grande (1-1 PAC-7) with 18 points. Tyler Marsden put in 15.

Righetti 68, Paso Robles 61

The Warriors (7-7 overall) overcame 25 points by the Bearcats’ Lonnie Watson and won their PAC-7 League debut at Paso Robles.

Drew Senior led four Warriors in double figures with 13 points. Dominik Hitch scored 12. Quentin Sims and Nick Sauer put in 11 points each.

Righetti rallied after trailing 33-29 at halftime.

Boys soccer

Arroyo Grande 2, Atascadero 1

Ernie Lopez and Pepe Pepe Fonseca scored for the Eagles as they won at home to start their PAC-7 League campaign.

Atascadero dropped to 1-1-0 in league games.

Righetti 1, Paso Robles 0

Taylor Frias scored off a corner kick in the 32nd minute to give the Warriors the win. Righetti moved to 12-1-1 on the season.

Jesus Cabrera had two saves in the win. Maurice Robinson made Cabrera’s job easier at right-back, playing a strong defensive game.

January 08, 2009