There is a different energy coming from the SBCC men’s basketball team to start the 2025-26 season.
Sixteen SBCC players saw action as the Vaqueros overwhelmed visiting Bakersfield Community College with their depth and held on late for an 81–79 victory on Friday night at Robertson Gymnasium on the campus of UC Santa Barbara.
“The foundation of our team is that we have to play harder than our opponent. When we sub in fresh legs there can’t be a drop-off,” said SBCC coach Devin Engebretsen. “Basically any one of these guys can effectively be a starter. It’s going to be a different guy that steps up every night.”
Against Bakersfield, a host of Vaqueros stepped up, but it was Mason Thomas who led the way offensively with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field in just 14 minutes of playing time. Thomas converted three of his five attempts from three-point range.
“Tonight we finally shot the ball well from three-point range,” Engebretsen said. “We had been shooting a high volume of three-pointers coming into this game, but we hadn’t been making them.”
The Vaqueros trailed 37-32 with 3:37 remaining in the first half following a Zykiar Henderson layup. Henderson put up an impressive stat line with 35 points and 13 rebounds while shooting 15-of-19 from the field.
However, SBCC closed the first half on an 11-2 run capped off by back-to-back Thomas three-pointers with less than a minute remaining before halftime, giving the Vaqueros a 43–39 lead at the break.
Bakersfield never led in the second half despite cutting its deficit to one on multiple occasions. When Bakersfield trimmed the margin to 72-71 on a Henderson layup with 4:14 remaining, it was Thomas to the rescue again with a corner three-pointer that extended the Vaqueros’ lead to 75-71 with 3:46 to play.
Jack Berry contributed two baskets in the final 1:19 that helped SBCC hold on for the win. He finished with 11 points and five rebounds.
Santa Barbara High product Finn Whipps added nine points and four rebounds on a perfect 3-for-3 shooting from the floor. James Reach contributed nine points and six assists. In all, 14 SBCC players reached the scoring column.
With the victory, SBCC improves to 3-2 on the season and will travel to Cerro Coso for its next contest on Saturday, November 22.
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