Winter Sports Notebook : Santa Barbara Severs Buena Streak by Hammering Away on the Boards

It was the type of streak that could not end gently. It had to come down with a crash, like a tall palm tree that finally gives way to the force of a hurricane.

In this case the hurricane was the Santa Barbara High girls’ basketball team and the tree was Buena’s 64-game Channel League win streak. Santa Barbara, with seven players taller than 5 feet, 10 inches, whipped Buena, 74-53.

The Lady Bulldogs were outshot, outrebounded and outsavvyed in front of an overflow crowd of 1,500 at Buena.

“We didn’t shoot well and they hurt us on the boards,” said Joe Vaughn, the Buena coach who has authored 11 league titles in a row.

Small but quick Buena needed to force turnovers with its full-court press to keep the Lady Dons from capitalizing on their height advantage. Point guard Faha Banks, one of the only Santa Barbara players under 5-10, beat the press consistently, however.

“We used a man press to force turnovers from their guards but Banks really dribbled and passed well,” Vaughn said.

Her impact was felt in other ways. Buena guard Mary Klemm picked up three fouls in the first half, forcing the All-American senior to sit out the last 2:48 of the first half and play cautiously thereafter.

“The game got away when Klemm picked up her third foul,” Vaughn said.

Santa Barbara (15-2, 8-0 in league play) made 22 of 36 field-goal attempts in the second and third quarters and led, 58-29, as the fourth quarter began.

“We’ll look to do some different things when we play next,” Vaughn said. “We’ll have to find a way to get some rebounds.”

Vaughn did not have exact rebounding totals for the game, saying that they weren’t kept by his usual statistics clerk. He guessed that Santa Barbara had more than double the amount of rebounds pulled down by Buena (16-1, 7-1), which had been ranked No. 15 in a national poll before the game.

“I’m going to have to go through the videotape and add up the rebounds,” he said.

That’s one tape Vaughn won’t enjoy watching.

Stepping down: Mike Olgy resigned last week as football coach at Buena High. Olgy, who had a six-year record of 20-37-3, will remain at the school as a teacher.

Buena was 2-8 last season and 3-7 in 1986. The Bulldogs’ only winning season under Olgy was a 6-4 mark in 1985.

Olgy took over the program from Hank Ertman in 1982. Ertman, by far the most successful of the five coaches Buena has had, compiled a record of 80-67-6 over 16 years.

A successor has not been named, according to Athletic Director Joe Vaughn.

Dailey news: Steve Dailey of Ventura was chosen to the high school scholar-athlete team by California Football magazine. Dailey, a senior linebacker-fullback-kicker, was a Times All-Ventura County selection.

A winning town: The three high schools in Ventura have a combined record of 43-5 in boys’ basketball. Ventura (16-1) and Buena (14-2) have each beaten the other once. Buena’s first loss came at the hands of Mater Dei, 71-66, in the Beverly Hills tournament. St. Bonaventure (13-2) lost nonleague games to Oakwood and Nordhoff.

Add Seraphs: St. Bonaventure remained atop the Tri-Valley League standings with a 57-45 win over Moorpark on Friday. Moorpark led, 27-26, at halftime but was outscored, 19-12, in the third quarter and 12-6 in the fourth.

St. Bonaventure guard James Bailey made 8 of 9 free throws in the fourth quarter. Bailey scored a game-high 15 points.

Assisting winners: Perhaps it is no coincidence that the three Ventura County assist leaders are from the best three 4-A teams. Buena’s Mike Sandoval has 165 assists and an average of 10.3 a game, Simi Valley’s Butch Hawking has 168 and an average of 8.8, and Ventura’s Joe Paul has 124 and an average of 7.3.

Add Sandoval: Need a clutch free throw? Sandoval is the man you want at the line. He made 23 of 28 free throws in important victories over Ventura and Santa Barbara last week. “The reason we’re doing so well right now is probably because of him,” said Glen Hannah, Buena’s coach.

Injury report: Cary Brown, Ventura’s sixth man, is out for a week after injuring his left knee in last week’s loss to Buena.

Insult to injury: Eric Thomas already had scored 17 points as Rio Mesa built a 31-15 lead over Oxnard in a Channel League game Friday night. But the sophomore forward wasn’t finished. He uncorked a shot from halfcourt at the buzzer that slipped through the net for three points. Thomas finished with 24 points and 3 blocked shots in Rio Mesa’s 74-46 win. Guard Lester Smith, who stands only 5-11, blocked five shots for the Spartans.

Big Mac: Simi Valley’s Don MacLean, a 6-10 All-American center, is averaging 33.8 points and 13.6 rebounds a game, leading the county in both categories. He averages 12.2 more points a game than the county’s second-leading scorer, Larry Carlton (21.6) of Nordhoff.

MacLean’s teammate, Shawn DeLaittre, is third with an average of 21.4.

JC Watch: Because of College of the Canyons’ 90-87 upset win over Allan Hancock last week, Ventura remains alone in first place in the Western State Conference’s Northern Division. Ventura, which defeated Hancock two weeks ago, was nearly run off the floor by Santa Monica in a 93-85 loss Saturday night.

Santa Monica led by 22 early in the second half before Ventura (17-8, 5-1) closed to within five points with two minutes to play.

Alumni game: Despite two shutout innings from Kevin Gross of the Philadelphia Phillies, a team of Oxnard College alumni was defeated by this year’s team, 5-2, Sunday. Tim Laker, a freshman catcher from Simi Valley High, hit a three-run home run for Oxnard.