Boys Basketball Roundup: Santa Barbara and San Marcos Open Channel League Play With Home Victories

The senior trio of Luke Zuffelato, Carter Battle and Diesel Lowe combined for 61 points as the Santa Barbara High boys’ basketball team opened Channel League play with a 86-73 victory over Rio Mesa on Tuesday night.

The Dons got off to a slow start, but pulled away from the visiting Spartans with a third-quarter surge and cruised to victory.

“It took us a while to get going, but a lot of credit to Rio Mesa they played really hard, they battled and they shot really well,” said Santa Barbara High coach Greg Zuffelato. “We’ve played pretty high level competition and I think we might have thought we could just come into this league game and roll through them, but the League is good; everybody can beat anybody on a given night.”

Rio Mesa standout Jackson Knowles knocked down a contested three-pointer off the dribble. Cutting the Spartans’ deficit to 46-40 early in the third quarter. Knowles finished with a team-high 25 points.

However, Santa Barbara responded with a 17-3 run that was capped off by a steal and transition layup by Lowe that increased the Santa Barbara lead to 63-43 with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter.

Once the Dons picked up the defensive intensity and started playing in the open floor Rio Mesa could not keep up.

Zuffelato finished with a game-high 27 points and D.J. Wilson made four three-pointers to give the Dons a much-needed boost from the outside.

Santa Barbara {4-2 overall, 1-0 Channel League} will travel to Pacifica on Thursday with tipoff set for 7 p.m.

San Marcos 70, Pacifica 37

The Royals jumped out to a 38-12 halftime lead and never looked back. Ten San Marcos players reached the scoring column in the runaway victory.

Junior Koji Hefner led all scorers with 17 points and sophomore Aidan Conlan chipped in 15 points.

San Marcos (3-3 overall, 1-0 Channel League) will host Rio Mesa on Thursday beginning at 7 p.m.