Escalon’s varsity girls basketball team got one win in the recent Pete Arellano Memorial Tournament, topping Millennium of Tracy but falling to Johansen and Summerville.

Head coach Joseph Dalpogetti said the team opened up on Wednesday against Johansen and took a 55-46 loss.

“Johansen is much improved,” Dalpogetti said. “We play hard, we’re just very small and Johansen just powered over us.”

Escalon did hit 10 3-point shots on the day, forced to shoot from outside because they were not able to establish an inside game against the bigger Lady Vikings.

Katie Karp and Dulce Jimenez paced the Escalon effort with 13 points each, Brooke Campbell was also in double figures with 11 points.

Escalon was down just 24-22 at the half, but Johansen stayed a few points better over both the third and fourth quarters to slowly pull away for the win.

Thursday, the girls bounced back with a strong effort against Millennium, using a huge third quarter to get the win.

“We were down two at the end of the first, down two at the end of the half,” Dalpogetti said.

At halftime, the talk was about being more aggressive on the court and Escalon came out and did just that, outscoring the Falcons 18-6 in the third quarter. The final score saw Escalon come out on top, 56-39.

Campbell had 19 points in the victory, Jimenez added 12.

“Part of what we’re working on is getting the girls to rotate to the right spots on the court,” Dalpogetti said of developing the teamwork and adapting to the game plan.

Friday, the Lady Cougars were supposed to play Ripon Christian in the consolation game, but RC opted to play an earlier contest so their girls could travel to watch the football team in the Section finals that evening.

That put Escalon into a game against Summerville, falling by a 55-47 final.

“It was almost identical to the Johansen game,” said Dalpogetti. “We have to get better at boxing out; we’ll almost always be the smallest team on the court so boxing out is something we have to work on.”

Alexa Gomez had a solid night with 16 points and Jimenez was also in double figures, adding 12. She was named to the All-Tournament Team.

The tournament was won by Bret Harte, which came back from an early deficit to take the title against Johansen.

In the JV bracket, Escalon’s JV girls got a forfeit win over Waterford, lost to Central Catholic and then played and defeated Waterford. Dalpogetti said it became more of a round robin tournament, with one team failing to show and Thursday games canceled because of a leak in the small gym.

Central Catholic won the tournament and Escalon, with Robbie Leal returning to coach the team for a second season, got the second place plaque.

The teams were scheduled to play at Summerville on Tuesday, with the varsity heading to the Linden Tournament Thursday through Saturday, the JV girls going to the East Union Tournament.