Jake Vander Veen scored his 1,000th career point for the Ripon Christian Knights in a 55-31 win over the Sonora Wildcats in Trans-Valley League action Friday night.

Like most points for Ripon Christian (5-1, 16-5) on the night, 999 and 1,000 for Vander Veen were sparked by defense. Early in the third quarter, Mason Tameling came up with one of the Knights’ 10 steals and was able to find Vander Veen for a layup and the career milestone.

“First off, I have to thank God for putting me here,” Vander Veen said. “I love my teammates and my coaches, I couldn’t be more grateful and blessed.”

Vander Veen finished with a game-high 20 points, but led a very balanced offensive attack for Ripon Christian. Tameling scored 12 points of his own, while Amos Cady was also in double figures with 10 points.

“It seems like the training in practice is starting to click in,” Knights coach Mark Hofman said. “I saw a lot of bad habits go away tonight.”

Things clicked on the defensive end for Hofman’s team as well, which didn’t allow double digits in a quarter. When Sonora (5-1, 14-7) was able to get to the basket, it was met by staunch defense led by senior center Walker Postma, who accounted for three of the team’s four blocks.

“Our defense was unbelievable,” Hofman said. “We’ve seen bits and pieces of it, but tonight was the first time we were able to put it together from start to finish on that end of the floor.”

The Wildcats were led by guard Quentin Solis, who scored a team-high seven points. Noah Wright, Eli Ingalls, and Luke Otterson also scored six points each.

“Ripon Christian did a great job tonight,” Sonora coach Lloyd Longeway said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well, but they played some great defense. I wouldn’t fault our effort tonight, just seemed like a variety of things that didn’t go our way.”

For Sonora, the loss brings it back into to a three-way tie for first place in the TVL with Ripon Christian and Ripon.

The Knights’ lone TVL loss came last week against Ripon, and after the game, coach Hofman challenged his guys to get better. Safe to say his guys responded.

“He (Hofman) has coached a lot of great teams,” Cady said. “He has been preaching focus and effort, and we’ve played that way the past week and are on our way to being a great team ourselves.”

Hofman recognized there is more work to do in the second half of the league schedule.

“We’ve been in spots like this before and have let up,” he said. “We need to continue playing like we played tonight, if we want to accomplish everything this team set out for at the beginning of the year.”

It’s back out on the road for Ripon Christian next week, starting with a Wednesday trip to Hilmar followed by a Friday night visit to Hughson.

Junior Varsity

Ripon Christian 65, Sonora 43

Jordan Amad scored a game-high 28 points on eight made 3-point baskets. Matthew Hon contributed 14 points for Ripon Christian.