It was three wins and no losses this past week for the varsity Lady Cougars on the basketball court. They were home for one, on the road for a pair of games, and head coach Joseph Dalpogetti said they are continuing to find ways to put the wins on the books.
“We hosted West of Tracy on Tuesday and won 54-28,” Dalpogetti said. “We led by 21 at the break and never looked back.”
Macie Vickers had 19 points, Kelsey Webster put in 14 and Analise Silveira had 11.
“Our full court press allowed us to get some steals and get out in transition for a few easy buckets,” the coach noted. “They also got out of man to man pretty quickly because we were getting to the rim often. That’s been the case a lot this year.”
The make up of the team has often allowed them to force opponents out of their initial game plan.
“We are athletic and have some quick guards so I think just about everyone has been in zone against us in the second half if not earlier,” Dalpogetti said.
Wednesday, the girls were on the road at Ceres and escaped with a 42-38 win.
“It was just one of those games where we felt like we couldn’t really get anything going,” the coach admitted. “Hats off to Ceres, they were quick and scrappy. We are down two of our Day 1 starters still in Yanely Gomez and Sammy Lang so other girls are having to step up and fill roles and we still got the job done.”
Though the margin of victory was only four points, it was a case of a win is a win.
“I used to let ugly wins bug me, but if you’re in the game long enough you’ll take them any way they come and move on to the next one,” Dalpogetti said of notching the ‘W’.
Webster had 11 points and Chloe Farley added 10.
In a Friday night contest, on the road at Franklin of Stockton, it was a 58-23 win for the varsity girls, after leading it by an incredibly lopsided 30-3 score at the half.
“Everyone got a lot of valuable playing time. They started pressing in the second half even through the running clock once we got up by 40 so Analise Silveira got a lot of running in and did a good job of breaking their press and leading us to easy baskets on the back end of it,” said Dalpogetti. “Macie led us in scoring with 20 points.”
The girls were scheduled to host Orestimba on Tuesday, Dec. 20 after The Times went to press.
“A rematch of the game that ended our season in the playoffs down in Newman last year,” the coach pointed out. “Then we head up the hill to play Amador on Thursday.”
The JV girls, meanwhile, lost by 10 points to West in a game where they were plagued with turnovers; but bounced back to take a relatively easy win over Ceres.
