SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – It was a classic crosstown rivalry game.
Lily Ruvalcaba snapped a tie game with putback bucket with just over one minute to play and teammate Janelle Capuno forced Carly Letendre into an off-balance heave in the final seconds as San Marcos held off Dos Pueblos.
The thrilling 55-53 win was the Royals first over their rival since the 2022-’23 season.
Both teams are now 3-2 in the Channel League.
Jada Ahmad led the Royals with 20 points hitting four 3-pointers.
(Ahmad scores to put Royals up by 4 with three minutes left. Entenza Design).
San Marcos also controlled the paint with Izzy Schow and Ruvalcaba each recording double-doubles.
Schow had 13 points and 15 rebounds while Ruvalcaba had 13 points with 10 rebounds as the Royals improved to 9-5 overall.
DP trailed 46-38 entering the fourth quarter but Kindah Ahmad-Reda brought the Chargers back with three 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter. She finished with 20 points.
Letendre is DP’s all-time leading scorer but she was in foul trouble and was held to 12 points.
The senior guard did tie the game at 53 with a driving layup with just under 1:30 to play.
But the Royals size made the difference on the game-winning two points. Off a missed three-point attempt, Selena Valencia batted the ball and was grabbed by Ruvalcaba near the hoop and when she scored the students in the crowd erupted.
On the game’s final play Capuno, who is terrific as rushing the quarterback for the Royals flag football team, fought through a pick, even falling down for a brief second, before hopping up to smother Letendre.
The Royals grabbed the rebound and celebrated a hard fought victory.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source keyt.com ’
