Golden Valley gets up close view of possible CCC favorite in Pitman.

After playing Pitman over the summer, Golden Valley High boys basketball coaches tabbed the Pride as the team to beat this year in the Central California Conference.

Nothing the Cougars saw on Friday night changed that.

Christian Williams scored 21 points as the Pride (5-1) defeated Golden Valley (4-2) 67-47 in the semifinals of the 41st annual Frank Godinez Basketball Tournament at Turlock High.

Pitman will face Turlock in Saturday’s championship game at 6 p.m.

“I think our league is going to be great,” said Golden Valley coach Keith Hunter. “But I’m also realistic. We have to improve. That’s a good team. The continuity of their offense. They ran their stuff and they made us break down defensively.”

It was a tough night for the Cougars offensively as only Cyrus Allen was able to score consistently. Allen did a lot of his damage from the free-throw line, making 8 of 12 shots from the charity stripe and finishing with 18 points.

Devon Martinez finished with 11 points for GV, but seven points came late with the Cougars trailing by 20 points.

Golden Valley made just 2 of 11 shots from the floor in the first quarter as the Pride opened up a 12-5 lead after the first 8 minutes.

“That’s not going to get it done,” Hunter said.

Williams scored 17 of his points in the first half to help the Pride open up a 36-25 lead at intermission.

Pitman put the game away with a 15-0 run to close out the third quarter, holding Golden Valley scoreless the final 4:30 of the quarter.

Freshman Josiah Frank hit three 3-pointers and scored 14 points for the Pride. Michael Anderson added 13 points and Jacob Slaton scored 10.

“Pitman was smooth and got in a rhythm,” Hunter said. “We’re not there yet. We tried to get them to run up and down with our press. They had the patience not to and they hurt us with layups.”

The Cougars will close out the tournament on Saturday against East Union.

Atwater 60, Livingston 44 in Atwater – The Falcons improved to 2-0 in the Atwater-Buhach Colony Tournament. Atwater will host Buhach Colony at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Girls Basketball

Atwater 69, Modesto Christian 61 in Salida – The Falcons advanced to the championship game of the Modesto Christian Tournament on Saturday with a win over the Crusaders. Marisa Martinez led the way with 16 points. Kelsey Valencia added 15 and Amoni Claiborne scored 14 for the Falcons. Atwater will face Turlock in the title game at 2:30 p.m.

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 9:40 PM with the headline "Golden Valley gets up close view of possible CCC favorite in Pitman.."