Cold-shooting Buhach Colony falls to East Union

The Buhach Colony High School boys basketball team knew pretty quickly it was going to be a long night.

John Bliss’ squad hoped to ride the momentum of its first win into a streak as it returned home Monday night. The Thunder Dome rims proved unkind, however, as Buhach Colony made just 1 of 13 shots in the first quarter.

The Thunder offense never really got going from there, and East Union cruised to a 56-38 nonleague victory.

“We really struggled in that first quarter,” said the Thunder’s Travis Lema, who scored nine points. “Our shots weren’t falling. Then, we kept having slow starts to quarters, letting them go on runs.

“We were hoping to do a little better coming off of our win, but we can feel things getting better and just need to keep working.”

Despite the poor shooting, Buhach Colony’s defense kept it in the contest through three quarters.

Lancers (5-5) guard Gyse Hulsebosch entered the game red-hot coming off the Tracy/West Winter Holiday Boys Classic. He scored seven of East Union’s nine points in the opening quarter but was limited to eight more the rest of the way.

Buhach (1-11) took advantage with a late run in the second quarter. Ethan Howe scored eight of his team-high 10 points in the second quarter to help trim the lead to 24-15 at the break.

A 6-0 run by East Union 30 seconds into the second half all but erased any hope for a comeback. It pushed the East Union lead to 30-15, and Cody Keener helped make sure it never got closer than 10 the rest of the way.

With the Buhach defense focused on limiting Hulsebosch’s space, Keener went to work on the offensive glass. The senior scored all 14 of his points in the second half and led the game with 11 rebounds.

“We definitely got beat by some of those second-chance opportunities,” Bliss said. “We were badly outrebounded and lost too many of the hustle plays. We didn’t shoot very well tonight, but I was pleased with our on-the-ball defense keeping us in it for most of the game.”

Atwater 66, Delhi 28 in Delhi – Armando Guzman (15 points), Brody Patterson (15) and Alex Chavez (12) led the way as the Falcons (5-5) cruised to a road victory over Delhi.

Hilmar 61, Le Grand 37 in Hilmar – Nino Ta-a hit three three-pointers en route to 15 points as the Yellowjackets dispatched of Le Grand.

Victor Martinez scored a team-high nine points for Le Grand (0-5).

Wrestling

Mike Tamana Duals in Modesto – Golden Valley went 4-0 to capture first place at the Mike Tamana Duals at Modesto Junior College.

This story was originally published December 23, 2014 at 12:23 AM with the headline "Cold-shooting Buhach Colony falls to East Union."