Merced, Hilmar girls open Golden Valley tournament with wins.

It was a rough opening night of the 23rd annual Lady Cougar Classic for three of the local teams on Thursday.

Golden Valley, El Capitan and Buhach Colony all fell in the first round. The Merced and Hilmar girls both won their games to reach the semifinals.

Merced opened the tournament with a 57-27 win over Ceres. Amaya Ervin led the way for the Bears with 15 points.

Hilmar defeated Golden Valley 49-35 behind Hailey Chavez’s 16 points. Erin Benning added 11 points for the Yellowjackets. The Cougars were led by senior Delia Moore, who scored 19.

Also in the tournament, River Valley defeated El Capitan 71-38 with Mikayla Kaufhardt leading the Gauchos with eight points.

Beyer defeated Buhach Colony 63-15 in the other first-round matchup. Alicia Jones and Nakaya Brown each scored 15 to lead the Patriots. Caly Curran and Alyssa Norman both scored five for the Thunder.

Boys Basketball

Atwater 71, Davis 49 in Modesto – The Falcons picked up their first win of the season at the Modesto City Tournament as Saul Avitia and Ashton Jantz both scored 18 points.

Gregori 79, Buhach Colony 48 in Modesto – Irik Dobbins scored 12 as the Thunder dropped to 0-2 this season. Anoop Nagra added 11 points for BC.

El Capitan 67, Vallejo 61 at Napa – The Gauchos opened the season with a victory as Marcus McCutchen scored 22 and TJ Wills added 13 in the first round of the Napa Wine Valley Tournament.

Boys Soccer

Stone Ridge Christian 2, Ripon Christian 1 in Merced – Bryce Louters scored a goal and assisted on a goal by Jordan Hooker to lead the Knights to a victory.

This story was originally published December 1, 2017 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Merced, Hilmar girls open Golden Valley tournament with wins.."