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Varsity Girls Roughed Up In First TVL Contests
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Kicking off the league campaign with arguably the best the Trans-Valley has to offer, Escalon's varsity girls fell victim to Modesto Christian in action on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

Traveling for the contest, the girls found themselves turned away by a 101-14 final, as they were unable to get anything going on the offensive end and had no answer defensively for the Crusaders.

"They are really good," coach Kristie Cathcart said. "In the fourth quarter, they went back into a zone, we just had a hard time offensively."

Later in the week, the Modesto Christian girls held the league's likely second best team, Hughson, to just 19 points so Cathcart said it was nice to know they weren't the only team to net less than 20 points against them.

Never really letting up, host MC roared out to a 29-4 lead after one quarter and had a 59-4 edge at the break. They added runs of 26-4 and 16-6 in the third and fourth quarters for the lopsided decision.

Cathcart said the host team took advantage of fast break opportunities as well as shooting effectively from the floor.

"We'd have a turnover, they would get on a fast break, go down and score the points," she said. "There were only seven fouls all game."

Playing a pretty good defensive game, Cathcart said the Modesto Christian shooters still had plenty of good looks at the basket, converting on most of their shots.

Stephany Anserlian was the scoring leader for Escalon with six points, knocking down two 3's in the fourth quarter, Annie Gallego had four points, Breanna Brodie and Anne Bacay had two each to round out the scoring.

On Thursday, the girls played host to Ripon Christian and lost a 40-26 decision, dropping to 0-2 in league.

"We did a pretty good job defensively," noted Cathcart. "We just couldn't score baskets. They were up on us the whole game."

The teams were tied, 5-5, after one quarter, but Ripon Christian outscored the host Lady Cougars 10-5 in the second for a 15-10 halftime lead. It was an 11-8 scoring edge for RC in the third, 14-9 in the fourth for the final margin of victory.

Bacay was leading scorer, the only player for Escalon notching double digits with 10 points. Gallego had eight.

"They shot 22 free throws, we shot 10 or 12," added Cathcart.

This week, the girls will look to get on the winning track in league, but will need players to step up offensively to do it. More production is needed, said Cathcart, with several players needing to get into the mix as the squad continues to play the league schedule.

They were slated to host Riverbank in Monday night action, Jan. 26 after The Times went to press, and will be at Hughson for a Thursday night game, Jan. 29. Road action continues on Monday, Feb. 2 with a game at Ripon.