Atwater boys basketball extend winning streak to nine games with win over Manteca
The Atwater High boys basketball team continued their torrid start to the season, defeating Manteca 55-38 in the Mark Gallo Invitational championship game at Central Catholic High School on Saturday night.
The Falcons remained unbeaten at 9-0 this season, winning their second tournament in consecutive weeks.
Senior Tyler Parr led the way with 13 points and was named to the all-tournament team. Colton Dukes scored and was named the tournament MVP after scoring 63 points in three games. Dukes was also named MVP after Atwater won the Manteca Tournament last week.
Khoi Nguyen was also named to the all-tournament team after scoring a career high 24 points in Friday’s 71-59 win over Central Catholic.
“We’ve just had a lot of guys step up,” said Atwater coach Kanoa Smith. “We had Khoi score 13 points in the fourth quarter the other night. He couldn’t miss from three. Leo Cebrero is relatively unknown after playing limited minutes for us last year and he’s had four games this year where he’s scored double-digits.”
The Falcons have an experienced group that returns from a team that has won at least a share of consecutive Central California Championships. Four players in Dukes, Parr, KJ Ross and Azim Muldrow have at least three years of varsity experience.
“We keep finding a way to win,” Smith said. “Not all of them have been easy. We were down 9-0 to Central Catholic the first time we played them and 22-13 in the second game against them. We don’t panic.”
It helps having a player like Dukes who is the reining CCC Most Valuable Player and is averaging over 21 points per game.
“The game has just slowed down for him and he lets the game come to him,” Smith said. “We’ll be playing and all of sudden we look up and he has 20 or 30 points.”
Other highlights from Saturday:
Meanwhile, El Capitan High senior Brody Collins tied a school record with 40 points in helping lead the Gauchos (6-5) to a 70-58 win over Gregori in the Mark Gallo Tournament. Collins now shares the record with Dillon Greenwood.
The Gauchos will play games against Ripon on Tuesday and Immanuel on Wednesday before flying to Hawaii for a tournament.
The Livingston boys basketball team need four overtimes to defeat Kimball 90-87 in the final day of the Patterson Tournament. Johan Garcia led the way for the Wolves with 32 points. Rohan Aulakh added 22 points and Avneet Mann scored 17 for Livingston, which improved to 7-5.
