Lady Cougar Classic tips off Thursday at Golden Valley
The 21st annual Lady Cougar Classic gets underway Thursday at Cougar Arena.
The basketball tournament features four local teams in Golden Valley, Merced, Buhach Colony and El Capitan. The Thunder lost to Madera 49-46 in the title game last year.
Merced (1-0) kicks off the tournament Thursday at 3:30 p.m. against Beyer (1-0). The Bears opened their season with a 64-57 win over Madera on Tuesday night. Merced is experienced in the backcourt with fourth-year guard Lexi Thompson and returning guards Symone Gilliam and Jordan Pierce.
Madera (0-1) will play Franklin of Stockton at 5 p.m. Buhach Colony (1-0) follows against Central Valley (2-0). The Thunder opened its season with a 50-18 win over El Capitan. Kaylee Lynch led the Thunder with 21 points.
The final game on day one is Golden Valley (1-0) against El Capitan (0-1). The Cougars are led by UC San Diego-bound senior Stephanie Moore, who averaged 15.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 steals last season in leading the Cougars to a Central California Conference championship.
The Cougars also return center Abbee Croninger and guard Naomi Peterson. Golden Valley likely will be without point guard Delia Moore until January while she rehabs a knee injury.
All-CCC volleyball – After Turlock and Pitman tied for the Central California Conference championship, both teams took home the major awards.
Pride junior setter Kiyanna Torres was named the MVP of the conference after averaging 9.4 assists per set. Pitman senior Lauren Solis was named Defensive Player of the Year.
Turlock sophomore Julia Handy was selected as Setter of the Year.
Pitman’s Kristen Pontes-Christian and Turlock’s Amber Castillon were named co-Coaches of the Year.
The all-CCC first team was comprised of Jessica Pinasco (Buhach Colony); Croninger and Felicya Zuniga (Golden Valley); Torres, Solis and Yisel Perez (Pitman); and Handy, Jadyn Tubbs and Emily Romo (Turlock).
Earning second-team honors were Abby Knapp and Brittany Massa (Atwater), Sarah Clarot and Vanessa Andrade (Buhach Colony), Karen Kale and Moore (Golden Valley), Jordan Pierce (Merced), Kaylin Randhawa and Whitney Barnes (Pitman), and Brett Hanson and Sophie Bigler (Turlock).
Knights’ Hooker among sack leaders – Stone Ridge Christian defensive end Mark Hooker had a monster performance with five sacks in the Knights’ 69-0 win over Big Valley Christian in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII championship game Saturday.
That brought Hooker’s season total to 28.5 sacks, which ranks second in California and third in the nation among players playing 11-man football. Hooker trails Ramar Crump Jr. (44.5) of Kennedy in Sacramento and Nabahitachiini Nez (31) of Navajo Pine in Navajo, N.M.
This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Lady Cougar Classic tips off Thursday at Golden Valley."