It was a split of games for the varsity Lady Cougars on the basketball court this past week. They lost on the road but came away with a win at home.
Tuesday, they went to Hughson to take on the first place Lady Huskies, falling 53-35 in the Jan. 17 contest.
“I think we let our nerves get the best of us and just seemed a step slow all game,” admitted head coach Joseph Dalpogetti. “We trailed the whole first half and entered the locker room down by seven.”
Coming out of the break, the Lady Cougars looked like they were going to go on a sustained run.
“We cut it (deficit) to two quickly in the third but they answered with a 6-0 run and we never truly threatened again,” admitted Dalpogetti. “We tried to scramble defensively late in the game and trap in situations we don’t normally try to do and they made us pay for it so what was probably more of an 8 to 10-point feel ended up as 18 on the scoreboard.”
Sammy Lang paced the team with a 14-point effort.
That loss dropped the Lady Cougars to third place in the Trans-Valley League behind Hughson, 6-0, and Riverbank, 5-1.
“On Thursday we hosted Hilmar, we beat them 58-34,” said Dalpogetti.
The contest, however, was a tale of two halves, as the squads were fairly even early on, Escalon leading just 17-15 after the first quarter.
“They were hitting some tough shots to start the game,” Dalpogetti explained. “By half we led 30-20 and then in the third we finally started to play our style and outscored them 22-6 in the quarter.”
Hilmar never got close in the fourth and Escalon notched the win.
Analise Silveira was leading scorer with 15 points on the night, Kelsey Webster added 13.
The girls were slated to travel to Riverbank on Tuesday night, Jan. 24 after The Times went to press, for a big match with the talented Lady Bruins.
“Then Thursday we host Ripon Christian who we struggled with the first round so it’ll be a big week of TVL basketball for us,” Dalpogetti said.
The JV girls were 32-29 winners on the road against Hughson and also had a solid second half effort in getting past Hilmar 40-36 at home on Thursday.
Ayana Cocio had 11 points in the win over Hughson; she had 13 to pace the team against Hilmar and Aiden Hohenwarter added 11.
