After taking a win in the opening round of the Cougar Christmas Classic Tournament, the youngest basketball boys lost a pair, going 1-2 in the tourney.

Escalon’s freshmen topped Linden in the first game, Dec. 28, by a 55-36 final and improved their season mark to 10-1.

That set up a second round showdown with Lincoln of Stockton and the much larger Stockton school had the upper hand in a 58-25 win on Tuesday, Dec. 29.

“We got buried,” admitted head coach Dave Anderson. “We played really tough schools in this tournament. At halftime we were only down by nine points so we were very competitive early.”

But the frosh boys ran out of steam and Lincoln took the win. Luca Dutra paced Escalon with six points.

In Wednesday’s finale, Escalon faced Weston Ranch in the third-fourth place game. It was another battle of small school vs. large school and the Weston Ranch team came out on top, 53-31.

“We played good for the first two quarters,” said Anderson, “then we just got outmanned.”

Dutra and Mike Carroll each had seven points in the loss. Dutra was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Now at 10-3, the frosh boys will be on the road to start Trans-Valley League play this week, facing off with Riverbank in a 4:30 p.m. contest on Friday, Jan. 8.