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Lady Cougars end Section basketball playoffs in semifinals
3-4 Allie
Looking for a teammate to pass the ball to, Escalon’s Allie Fiser is shown during the Feb. 19 home game against Calaveras. She had six points in the quarterfinal playoff win and played some solid minutes for the varsity squad. Escalon did lose to Central Catholic on the road on Feb. 24 in the Section semifinals. Marg Jackson/The Times
3-4 Avery
Going in over the shoulder, varsity Lady Cougar Avery Bartelink fights for possession of the rebound with the Calaveras player during a playoff game in Escalon on Feb. 19. The Escalon girls defeated the visiting Lady Red Hawks but ended their Section run a few days later in the semifinals, losing to Central Catholic on the road. Marg Jackson/The Times

Escalon’s Lady Cougars saw their run in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 basketball playoffs come to an end on the road Tuesday evening, Feb. 24.

The girls, the number four seed, lost a 54-41 contest to the number one seed Central Catholic Raiders in the semifinal round.

“We went zone this time around which I think caught them off guard because we used straight man the first two times that we played them,” said Escalon head coach Joseph Dalpogetti in switching the defense for this third meeting on the season. “The second time we played, they beat us pretty good so we knew we had to change some things up.”

Escalon had a lead, 6-5, after the first quarter and the teams were tied 13-13 at the half.

“Allie Fiser had an offensive rebound and a put back at the buzzer,” Dalpogetti said of knotting the score after two quarters.

In the third, the teams continued to battle evenly through the first four minutes.

“We actually scored a basket on an Avery Bartelink layup to make it 22-20 with four minutes left (in the third) and then the wheels fell off,” Dalpogetti explained. “We let the pressure get to us and we had a lot of uncharacteristic turnovers that sparked them on a 16-2 run to close the quarter.”

That put Escalon into a double-digit hole headed into the fourth quarter.

“We hit a three from Avery Bartelink to cut it to 10 with six minutes left we but we really never got any closer,” said the coach. “They double teamed then even at times triple teamed Arianna Velasco, who finished the game with 22 points.”

The coach added that it was a hard-fought game between the two teams.

“The final score was 54-41 but I think both sides can agree the game felt a lot closer than that for the majority of it,” Dalpogetti said. “Very proud of the girls and how they responded to the number one seed, a one loss team that we had already lost to twice, playing in a tough environment, in front of a packed gym on the road; the girls showed a lot of grit and toughness.”

Though the loss knocked Escalon out of the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, they did qualify for the NorCals. Central continued on to the Section title game, on Friday, Feb. 27 but took a loss there to the number three seed West Campus Warriors.

Dalpogetti said there were also plenty of positives that came out of the second half of league and the playoff run for the Lady Cougars.

“We finished off the second half of TVL play undefeated and won two playoff games and pushed the number one seed to the brink, all without our leading scorer,” the coach said of being without Madi Babasa, who had been the team leader in scoring until she was lost to an injury. “There’s no doubt that Ari is our best player, but Madi was still averaging 18.8 points per game in league before her injury and so that is a big loss to the team. These girls have really stepped up and rallied around each other to push themselves to get better.”

Escalon was awarded the number four seed in the 2026 CIF State NorCal bracket for Division 5; they took the court to host number 13 Healdsburg in a Tuesday night game, March 3, in Escalon at 7 p.m. The varsity girls came away with a 56-37 victory. That opening round win earned them another home game and they will host the number five seed, Durham, on Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m.

Durham defeated number 12 Castilleja on Tuesday night, 46-34.

 

Editor Marg Jackson contributed to this report.