Capturing their second tournament title of the young season, Escalon’s varsity basketball girls were winners at the Johansen Tournament this past week in Modesto.

Head coach Joseph Dalpogetti noted that his team swept to victory, taking down opponents Venture Academy on Wednesday, Sonora on Thursday and defeating Division 2 squad Merced in the championship contest on Friday, Dec. 8.

“We won championships on back-to-back Fridays,” Dalopgetti said, as they won the Pete Arellano Memorial tourney title on Dec. 1 and the Johansen title on Dec. 8. “This one was a little more impressive because we did it without our two time All District, one-time TVL MVP and one time All League player Macie Vickers.”

Despite down a key player, Escalon drew Venture Academy in the opener. Their opponent came in with a 5-1 record but Escalon roared out to a 20-2 lead and never looked back.

“Sammy (Lang) was playing terrific and had nine points in the first quarter, but she came down on her knee funny after a foul on her lay up so I opted to sit her out of the rest of the game, but she was playing special,” Dalpogetti said. “The final score was 63-19.”

Madi Babasa and Ari Velasco had 14 points each; Chloe Farley had 10 and Ayana Cocio had nine.

“The next day we played Sonora, who beat Orestimba by four the day before,” Dalpogetti said. “They came into the game with a 4-1 record.”

The defensive scheme that Sonora utilized, however, didn’t work out for them.

“They tried to box and one Sammy in the first quarter but we jumped on them 17-2 in the first,” said the coach. “We led 37-17 at the half. We pushed it to a 28-point lead at one point and ended up winning by 22 points, 60-38.”

Velasco had 14 points on the night, Lang added 12 points, with 10 from Farley and Ashley Titsworth contributed eight points.

“In the championship we drew Division 2 Merced; they came into the game with a 6-2 record,” Dalpogetti said. “They had beaten Sierra on Day one and Johansen on Day 2; this was a much lower scoring game.”

Both teams had multiple turnovers, said the coach, and the title game itself didn’t tip off until about 9 p.m. Friday, at the end of a long week for both teams.

“We led 9-6 after one but found ourselves trailing 22-18 at the break,” Dalpogetti said. “We outscored them 13-7 in the third and led going into the fourth, 31-29.”

In that final frame, there were three lead changes.

“Ari had back-to-back threes to put us up by four. Merced cut it to two, but they allowed us to run about 25 seconds off the clock before fouling us with 1.8 seconds left.”

Lang – the player who was intentionally fouled – made both free throws to ice the game with a four-point lead, the varsity Lady Cougars winning 47-43 to bring home top honors.

Velasco paced the squad with 21 points, Lang added 18.

“For back-to-back weeks, Sammy and Ari made the All-Tournament Team,” Dalpogetti added.

The girls improved to 7-0 and were scheduled to play at Orestimba on Dec. 12 and then will be hosting Pitman on Friday, Dec. 15 with the JV tipping off at 4:30 p.m., the varsity at 6 p.m.