Escalon’s varsity basketball boys took part in the Dec. 2 Foundation game to start off their 2013-14 campaign and fell to Central Catholic, but bounced back with a win on the road at Bret Harte on Tuesday.

“We won, 60-55,” said head coach Martin Louro of the first official game for the Cougars. “We won three out of the four quarters, we lagged little bit with our pressure in the second quarter.”

Escalon had a 14-11 scoring edge in the first quarter, Bret Harte turned the tables and outscored the visiting Cougars 18-13 in the second to take a 29-27 halftime lead. But a 17-14 advantage in the third and 16-12 scoring edge in the final frame lifted the Cougars to the win.

“We think we can be a pretty good team, we can challenge people but we have to do it on the defensive end,” explained Louro.

He said this year’s team doesn’t have any players that will be the main shooter, as the Cougars have multiple players that can shoot well and all will be counted on to contribute.

“We are the sum of all of the parts,” he said. “We have a lot of pretty good parts. If they all work together we will be okay.”

Stephen Silveira was the workhorse at Bret Harte, pouring in 19 points, and Louro said he also “took charge” and pulled down a lot of tough rebounds for his team.

Marvin Lawrence had the hot hand from 3-point range, knocking down four 3’s for a total of 12 points. Rounding out the Cougar players in double figures was Thomas Diniz with 10 and Chapman Mello added nine points.

“This week we are busy, we have four games,” Louro said.

The Cougars were slated to host Calaveras on Tuesday after The Times went to press, then the JV and varsity will go to the Buhach Tournament for games Thursday through Saturday. The varsity is scheduled to open with host Buhach in an 8 p.m. contest on Dec. 12.

Junior Varsity

The JV boys went 1-3 for the week in a busy start to their season. They lost at Bret Harte on Tuesday and then traveled to the Sacramento area for the Sheldon Tournament, losing first to host Sheldon of Elk Grove. They also took a loss on Friday before picking up their first win of the season in the final day of the tournament. Nate Bartelink returns as coach for the JV team, which will travel with the varsity to the Buhach Tournament this week.

Freshmen

Escalon’s youngest Cougars played three games in a tournament format in Ceres this week, going 1-2.

They won their first game against Livingston, then took losses to Turlock and Ceres over the next two games. This week, the freshmen will get another round of tournament games in, traveling to the Amador Tournament. Back to coach the freshmen is David Anderson.