Boys Basketball: Benicia Varsity Boys Fall at St. Patrick/St. Vincent 55-47

It was a game that Benicia High basketball coach Steven Carter, according to his logic, should have been a win.

Despite holding St. Patrick/St. Vincent to below 60 points, the Panthers couldn’t take their crosstown rival down, coming up on the short end of a 55-47 final Thursday night in Vallejo, in front of a school gym that was 70-80 percent filled to capacity.

“Our goal is to keep people in the low 50s like we did tonight,” Carter said. “We keep people in the low 50s we should win.”

Benicia (4-7) trailed by just one point after the first quarter and for the majority of the second before allowing the Bruins (4-5) to pull away to a seven-point lead at the half.

Once the third quarter started, St. Patrick streaked ahead. Jordan Hickman sank a three for the Bruins to open the second half, pushing it to a 10-point lead that ballooned to 17 midway through the period.

The Panthers would cut the lead back down to nine points by the end of the third and then chipped it to five almost immediately afterwards. Ben Jazuk scored three of his 10 points with a put-in basket and foul just 30 seconds into the fourth. He would make the ensuing free thro to keep the game close.w

That’s as near as the Bruins let Benicia get, as they pulled away to a consistent eight to nine-point lead to finish the game.

“We started to come back and we just ran out of time,” Carter said. “Give us three more minutes and I think the game would have been different.”

Senior Kenion McClanahan scored 20 points for the Panthers off the bench. It was McClanahan’s first game of the season.

“It’s a breath of fresh air,” Carter said. “He brings toughness and he leads by example. He gets on the floor and he plays hard. That makes the guys go.”

McClanahan was happy Carter didn’t start him so that the he could adjust to being on the court for the first time this year.

“It was just the audience that was watching me,” McClanahan said. “I was really jittery. My butterflies really haunted me.”

McClanahan felt that the team could have been more positive about its seven-point halftime deficit.

“Everyone was down like we were down by 20,” he said. “We need to work as a team. As the lead progressed, we kept getting downer, like more in a ditch. We just need to come together as a team and stop criticizing. I know we criticize a lot and that needs to stop.”

The Benicia varsity boys play next Wednesday, Dec. 28 at Florin at 4:30 p.m.

JV Boys

Benicia JV boys basketball coach Thomas McClanahan said he was wondering what team he would get on the court during Thursday night's game prior to tipoff.

It turned out to the be the team he didn’t want.

McClanahan’s Panthers team fell to St. Vincent/St. Patrick 56-43. Benicia (6-5) rolled out to an early 15-9 lead after the first quarter but unraveled in the final three, allowing 47 points and only scoring 28 down the stretch.

“That’s been our story our last couple of games,” McClanahan said. “We start out playing really well and then we start self-inflicting our own turnovers.”

The Bruins grabbed a nine-point lead at the half and bumped it up to 15 heading into the fourth quarter.

“Right now we’re just turning the ball over too much,” McClanahan said. “We got two different teams going. We show up. We play well. We know we can play with them, and then we just start self-inflicting our own wounds. We’re helping the other team basically beat us.”

The Panthers play at Florin on Wednesday, Dec. 28 at 3 p.m.

Freshman boys

The Benicia freshman boys moved to a 10-4 record Thursday night as they cruised to an easy victory over St. Patrick/St. Vincent.

Panthers coach Eric Woodford said his family has connections to both programs.

 “I have a younger son. He just graduated from St. Pats, so I’m really into (them)," he said. "One of my older sons went to Benicia. It’s always been a crosstown rival with all the kids and whatever else.”

Woodford is hopeful the Bruins can play at Benicia next season.

“Hopefully next year they can come to our house and we’ll see what happens then,” he said. “We really had a good time. I’m looking forward to it.”

Brandon Barrett had six points, Woodford said.

“He’s got those long arms,” Woodford said. “He really finds a way to get to the basket and he runs the floor. For a big guy to turn around and run the floor that’s awesome. That’s what I really need.”

Barrett said the team’s defense has improved since the start of the season.

“We started off pretty bad,” he said.

Once the team started to gel, things changed.

“We’ve just been winning,” Barrett said. “It’s been working out for us.”

The freshman boys play in a tournament at Cardinal Newman starting next Saturday Dec. 30.

Follow Benicia Patch on Twitter: @beniciapatch

Follow Peter Fournier on Twitter: @P_Fournier

Like Benicia Patch on Facebook