SIMI VALLEY TOURNAMENT : Santa Barbara Ends Santa Clara Win Streak at 48

Santa Barbara High entered the championship game of the Simi Valley basketball tournament Tuesday with its sights on the tournament scoring record.

But all the Dons could see during the first half were Santa Clara’s aggressive Saints, whose defense limited Santa Barbara to five field goals.

After a halftime tongue-lashing, Santa Barbara played near-flawless basketball during the third quarter and went on to post a 63-47 win at Simi Valley High. The defeat snapped a 48-game Santa Clara winning streak that dated to the 1988-89 season.

“In the first half, we were just standing around,” Santa Barbara Coach Bob Purdy said. “We got a little antsy, and were overplaying.”

Nothing a halftime discussion can’t cure.

“Sure, there was a little vocal inspiration,” said Matt Purdy, who scored 17 points and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

Santa Barbara responded with a 22-8 run in the third quarter, including 14 consecutive points in the final three minutes that turned a 34-28 deficit into a 42-34 Santa Barbara lead entering the fourth quarter.

“We picked up the intensity and pressured them more,” Bob Purdy said. “We wanted to speed it up some more.”

Yet Santa Barbara (4-0), ranked eighth in the Southern Section Division I, wasn’t safe until the waning seconds. Santa Clara (3-1) whittled an eight-point deficit to two, 57-55, when Chris Cole (21 points) hit two free throws with 39 seconds left.

Adam Sjvold, who scored 20 points and was an all-tournament selection, hit both ends of a one-and-one with 35 seconds left and Santa Clara’s Isaiah Mustafa answered with a jump shot that pulled Santa Clara within 59-57 with 27 seconds left.

Erwin Roelofs, who had 12 points, missed the front end of a one-and-one with 14 seconds left, but Purdy grabbed perhaps the biggest rebound of the game. Robby Blakeney and Alexy Drovtcsak were four of four from the line in the final 10 seconds.

Santa Clara, ranked No. 1 in Division IV, was only 18 of 47 (38%) from the field and 16 of 29 (55%) from the line.

“We just fell apart,” Santa Clara Coach Lou Cvijanovich said. “Everybody started to do their own thing.”

In other tournament games:

Muir 87, Taft 71--Sophomore Jacque Vaughn scored a tournament-best 34 points to lead Muir (3-1) to a third-place finish.

Casey Sheahan scored 17 points, Eric Dafney had 14, and Joe Snow 10 for Taft (3-2).

Granada Hills 85, Kennedy 70--Jerry Allen scored 28 points to lead Granada Hills (4-1) to the consolation title.

Ryan Cravens scored 11 of his 17 points in the second half, in which Granada Hills scored 52 points.

Alan Johnson scored 13 points and Kenjuan Casey and Athesis Harris each had 12 for Kennedy (3-2).

Royal 60, Douglas-Juneau 46--Kevin Hambly scored 15 points and David Tyner added 11 for Royal (3-1) in the fifth-place game.