Basketball Recap: Rio Mesa Comes Up Short

Rio Mesa lost against Santa Barbara back in December of 2024 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Monday. The Rio Mesa Spartans came up short against the Santa Barbara Dons, falling 85-64. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Friday (59), the Spartans still had to take the loss.

When it comes to explaining why Rio Mesa lost, don't look at Jackson Knowles. Despite the final result, he dropped a double-double on 23 points and 11 boards. Rio Mesa is 7-3 when Knowles posts ten or more rebounds, but 5-6 otherwise. Gerardo Garcia was another key player, putting up 11 points.

It was another big night for Luke Zuffelato, who dropped a double-double on 32 points and ten boards for Santa Barbara. That makes it three consecutive games in which Zuffelato has scored at least a third of Santa Barbara's points. Another player making a difference was Owen Horn, who went 5 for 7 on his way to 13 points.

This is the second loss in a row for Rio Mesa and nudges their season record down to 12-9. As for Santa Barbara, they have been performing well recently as they've won 12 of their last 15 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 15-5 record this season.

Rio Mesa wasted no time getting back out on the court and has already played their next game, an 80-54 win against Pacifica on the 15th. As for Santa Barbara, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, a 72-60 victory against San Marcos on the 15th.