Tournament play this week saw a mixed bag of results for Escalon’s varsity basketball girls.
Traveling to the Linden Tournament, they opened up with a loss to Calaveras, 69-16 on Dec. 11.
“We were down 24-4 at the end of the first and down 44-5 at halftime,” head coach Joseph Dalpogetti said of his players unable to find the scoring touch. “They came out and punched us in the mouth and we never recovered. We got some good looks to start the game but couldn’t convert and they were making everything that left their hands. It was just one of those nights.”
Katie Karp had five points to lead the team.
In round two, they lost to Millennium by a 35-26 final. Ten days earlier, the varsity girls had defeated the same team by 10 points.
“We just couldn’t hit shots; lay-ups, free throws, and open 3’s,” the coach said. “It was just like the day before but Millennium wasn’t scoring like Calaveras was.”
Brooke Campbell was in double figures, hitting for 11 points in the loss.
The varsity girls finally got a win on day three of the tournament, defeating the host Linden team, 45-20.
“We got off to a hot start and were making shots that wouldn’t go down for us the first two days,” Dalpogetti explained. “We were up 9-0 in the first few minutes and it was 24-2 at one point in the first half.”
All the Lady Cougars scored in the win with Marissa Silva leading the way with 14 points.
Junior Varsity
The JV girls were 38-11 winners over Summerville on Dec. 10, paced by 10 points from Kelsey Webster and eight from Isabella Jaime. On Dec. 12, they fell to Sonora, 53-21, with Analise Silveira putting in seven points. Silveira also had 17 points for the JV squad in a Friday loss to Beyer, 38-23 but the team bounced back in a big way with a 49-6 win over Bear Creek on Saturday, Dec. 14. Webster had 14 points, Rachel Farley added 13 and Jaime had 10.
“Thursday’s loss was horrible from an effort standpoint. We had to use that game as a lesson about pride in ourselves and not quitting when the going gets tough,” said head coach Samantha Baez.
She pointed to a strong effort from all players on Friday, despite the loss, and said they completed the turnaround with the victory on Saturday.
