Playing in a tough tournament, Escalon’s varsity Lady Cougars came away with second place honors this past week.
They traveled to Gregori for action and faced off with Venture Academy in the opening round.
“Venture Academy is on an upswing,” said head coach Joseph Dalpogetti. “They play a lot of AAU basketball. They ran a triangle and two defense on Madi (Babasa) and Ari (Velasco). We hadn’t seen one yet, so it gave us trouble in the first half.”
Escalon trailed just 28-25 at halftime and opened up the third quarter with a 10-0 run. They had the lead, 35-27, headed into the fourth quarter.
“We pushed it to double digits once but the final was 52-46,” Dalpogetti said. “We had several starters in foul trouble, but we still managed to find a way. It was a good learning experience for us.”
Leading the team were Velasco with 15 points, Babasa and Avery Bartelink with 12 points apiece.
In the semifinals, Escalon faced off with host Gregori and took a hard fought 55-50 victory.
“We had a back and forth first quarter and took a small halftime lead,” said the coach. “We led by 10 at one point in the second half. They hit a three late but they had to foul to stop the clock and Ari shot well from the (free throw) line.”
Velasco finished 14-for-17 from the stripe and had a tournament high 38 points in the game, while Babasa added 12.
“On the final day, we faced a very good and athletic El Cap (El Capitan) team; they have one loss this season to perennial power Christian Brothers of Sacramento and they haven’t had a close game against anyone local,” said Dalpogetti.
The Lady Cougars kept it close early, trailing by two after the first quarter.
“We struggled in the second and only scored one bucket and trailed 24-12 at the half,” the coach said. “They pushed the lead to 20-plus but we battled back and cut it to 12 with about half a quarter to go, and forced them to put their starters back in.”
Ultimately, El Cap was able to push the final score to 59-33 over Escalon to claim the championship.
In the loss, Bartelink had 11 points and Velasco had nine. Velasco averaged 20.7 points per game in the tournament and was named to the All-Tournament Team.
“I was proud of the overall effort in the tournament,” noted Dalpogetti. “And we are okay taking some lumps against good teams because this group has proven they’re willing to grow and learn from the tough moments.”
