Escalon was the host site for the annual Pete Arellano Memorial Tournament, hosted by the Escalon Lions Club, and the varsity basketball girls got one win on the court.

They opened up the three-day tournament on Wednesday, Dec. 4 and played to a 39-29 win against Millennium, out of Tracy. The low-scoring contest saw the Lady Cougar up 13-11 at the half. They stretched the lead to 22-16 after three quarters and then outscored their opponents 17-13 in the final frame.

That put them on the winner’s side of the bracket on Thursday where they took a hard fought loss to Johansen, 39-36. The squad fell behind early but battled back to go into the halftime break even with the Lady Vikings. Johansen proved just a few points better down the stretch and got the win.

Friday, the varsity girls, with coach Joseph Dalpogetti back at the helm this season, closed out the tournament with a 52-44 loss to Central Catholic.

Trailing 31-17 at the half, the varsity girls were outscored 15-13 in the third but tried to rally back. They did outscore Central in the fourth but couldn’t make up the early deficit.

For the JV girls, under new head coach Samantha Baez, they were also involved in the tournament and started off with a 44-16 win over Waterford on Wednesday.

“That was a nice first game for sure,” said Baez, who previously coached at Delta College and is excited to return to coaching at the high school level.

Rachel Farley had 13 points and Kelsey Webster added 12.

Thursday against Bret Harte, it was a much different outcome as the girls had trouble putting the ball in the hoop and took a 52-23 loss.

Leading scorer was Clare McPherrin with eight points.

They rounded out the three-day tourney with a 46-29 win over Ripon Christian.

“That game we only had seven turnovers, that was our focus,” Baez said of playing a cleaner game.

McPherrin had 14 points, including four 3’s, while Farley added 12 as the JV girls took third place in the tournament.