Roundup: Defense helps Atwater win ‘ugly’ over Buhach Colony to stay tied atop CCC.
JR Davis only needed one word to describe Tuesday night’s game against Buhach Colony — ugly.
The Atwater High girls basketball watched as his team turned the ball over 24 times and miss 16 of 19 shots from beyond the three-point line. The Falcons still managed to win convincingly over the Thunder 62-39 to remain tied atop the Central California Conference standings with El Capitan at the midway point of the conference schedule.
“That was a very ugly game,’ Davis said.
Atwater senior Kelsey Valencia didn’t want to use playing in a rivalry game as an excuse.
“It shows we have a lot to work on in practice,” said Valencia, who scored a game-high 20 points to go along with five rebounds and seven steals. “We have a long way to go.”
The Falcons (16-6 overall, 5-1 Central California Conference) haven’t had a lot of practice time the past two weeks. Having the opening bye meant Atwater had to play three games in back-to-back weeks.
With a week off until their next game, the Falcons will have five practices before they start the second half of the conference schedule against Central Valley.
Expect Atwater to spend a lot of time shooting over the next week.
“Definitely, Valencia said. “We usually spend about a quarter of our practice shooting up until the last two weeks. I think that has transitioned over into the games.”
One constant for the Falcons has been the effort on the defensive end. Atwater presses every chance it gets, even off misses if the opportunity presents itself.
The Falcons helped Buhach Colony (8-13, 3-3 CCC) turn the ball over 45 times on Tuesday night.
“We always know that defensively we have to be there,” Davis said. “Tonight we did a good job at times. We still had some lazy moments where we relaxed.”
Caly Curran led the Thunder with 13 points and Cassandra Gutierrez added 11 points.
The Falcons broke the game open early in the third quarter with a 10-0 run to start the second half that extended the lead to 36-19.
The Falcons put together another 11-0 run in the fourth quarter open up a 62-33 lead.
Marissa Martinez finished with 11 points. Amoni Claiborne added eight points and seven steals and Lexi Valencia chipped in with eight points, eight rebounds and four steals.
Merced 49, Golden Valley 41 in Merced — The Bears improved to 4-2 in the CCC behind Sierra Smith’s 17 points. Kyha Martin added 16 points for the Bears.
El Capitan 61, Central Valley 33 in Merced — Courtney Behn led the Gauchos with 14 points. Harmonie Farr and Amaya Ervin scored 12 points for El Capitan, which remains tied atop the CCC standings with Atwater at 5-1.
Livingston 64, Riverbank 21 in Livingston — Annie Winton topped 30 points for the ninth time in 10 games with 35 to help the Wolves remain unbeaten at 6-0 in the Trans-Valley League.
Boys Soccer
Atwater 3, Golden Valley 2 in Merced — Anthony Chavez, Alfonso Torres and Armando Ramirez all scored goals to help the Falcons pick up a win on the road at Veterans Stadium.
Aziel Gutierrez picked up two assists for Atwater (7-9-1 overall, 1-3-1 CCC).