Golden Valley pulls away late from Buhach Colony in CCC girls basketball

With the Golden Valley offense out of rhythm most of the night, Cougars girls basketball coach Matt Thissen challenged his players to step up on defense in the fourth quarter.

His players responded.

The Cougars held Buhach Colony to two points on 0-for-8 shooting in the fourth quarter and pulled away with a 45-28 win Tuesday night in the Thunder Dome.

“We challenged them to win our game with our defense,” said Thissen, whose team improved to 14-4 overall and 2-0 in the Central California Conference. “If we didn’t give up another basket, we’d make our seven-point lead stand up.”

The Cougars went into the game shorthanded with Delia Moore (knee) and Jaylene Miramontes (finger) sidelined. Moore tweaked her surgically repaired knee in the league opener against Pitman last week and is day-to-day.

“When somebody with a medical degree tells me she can play, she’ll play,” Thissen said.

Miramontes fractured a finger when a weight dropped on it.

With only eight healthy players, Golden Valley didn’t apply its full-court pressure.

“We had to give up something to conserve energy,” Thissen said. “We felt if we needed it in a certain situation, we could use it.”

Golden Valley struggled from the outside in its halfcourt offense, making just 4 of 19 from three-point range. It was the Cougars’ twin towers who picked up the slack. Center Abbee Croninger had 12 points and eight rebounds, and forward Kayla Commons had 12 points and nine rebounds.

Commons scored six points in the second quarter to help the Cougars take an 18-13 lead at halftime. Croninger scored eight in the third quarter as Golden Valley extended the lead to 33-26.

“It’s really crucial when our guards are taken out that we go inside and rebound and put up shots and score,” Croninger said. “Kayla and I have a good connection. We’re able to just know when we’re open. We know when to pass each other the ball.”

The Thunder started strong as Vanessa Lopez drained two early three-pointers to help Buhach Colony (9-8, 0-2) take a 10-4 lead midway through the first quarter.

Points were hard to come by the rest of the way as leading scorer Kaelee Lynch was in foul trouble most of the first half.

Lynch scored all 10 of her points in the second half to keep the Thunder within reach, but Buhach Colony struggled to get points from anybody else.

“We have to find a way to answer the bell when Lynch doesn’t go berserk for 30 points or Lopez doesn’t hit five or six three-pointers,” Buhach Colony coach Shane Gentry said. “That’s the issue with us right now. We held (Stephanie) Moore to 10 points. I’ll take that. Their bigs hurt us a bit, but if you would have told me they would have scored (45), I would have thought we’d be all right.”

Moore also had seven rebounds, eight assists and five steals. She scored on two breakaway layups that helped the Cougars score the first 12 points of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 45-26.

The Thunder could only manage two Lynch free throws in the fourth with 1:05 remaining.

“We were able to pull it out,” Croninger said. “We had some cold spots, but we fought through it.”

Merced 62, Turlock 50 in Turlock – Symone Gilliam led four Merced players in double figures with 15 points as the Bears improved to 2-0 in the CCC. Lexi Thompson, Raelynn Blackwell and Kiara Graves each scored 12 for Merced (14-4 overall).

Boys basketball

Le Grand 54, Denair 43 in Denair – Alberto Marquez scored 16 points as the Bulldogs improved to 2-1 in the Southern League. Fernando Aguilar and Giovanni Patino each scored 13 for Le Grand.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 10:35 PM with the headline "Golden Valley pulls away late from Buhach Colony in CCC girls basketball."