Manteca and visiting Sierra went toe-to-toe early on Wednesday before the host Buffaloes closed the first quarter on a 9-2 run on the way to a 61-49 Valley Oak League boys basketball victory.
Trailing by 13 points going into the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves (1-1 VOL, 11-7 overall) rode the hot hand of Tim Sarginson, who scored all 11 points in an 11-3 Sierra run to draw within 56-47 when he stole the ball and went coast-to-coast to with 1:35 left. The Timberwolves would come no closer.
“Sierra’s guys play hard, they play hard the entire game and (Sierra coach) Eddie (Morales) does a great job with his guys. They’re going to play to the death, and our guys pitter-patted the ball around when they shouldn’t.”
Peyton Nieman led the Buffaloes (2-0, 12-7) with 16 points along with five rebounds.
“Even though we got the win, we played pretty sloppy down the stretch,” Nieman said. “They were hitting shots.”
Manteca’s Evani Gaeta scored 17 points along with seven rebounds, five steals and four assists.
“We could have got so many better looks,” Gaeta said. “We had almost a 20-point lead but they cut that down in the fourth quarter.
“We need to play better basketball.”
Up until that four-quarter blitz by Sarginson, the Buffaloes led by double digits most of the night.
“I thought we gave up a lot of easy stuff,” Morales said. “We let their best players get to the rim too much, and I am pretty sure they killed us on the boards.”
Sierra’s Anthony Grady shared high-point honors with Nieman at 16 points with Joshua Seals adding nine points, six rebounds and three steals.
On Friday at 7:30 p.m., the Timberwolves host Central Catholic, while Manteca travels to Tracy to face Kimball.
Junior varsity
Manteca 46, Sierra 25
The Buffaloes’ Cooper Chamberlain led all scorers with 17 points followed by teammate Antonio Fraley with 12 points.
Julian Ruiz scored nine points for the Timberwolves and Cody Camarena added eight points.
Freshman
Sierra 49, Manteca 47
Karanbir Bhandal (eight rebounds) of the Timberwolves earned high-point honors with 17 points and Isaac Kempf notched a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Isaiah Revives chipped in seven points with six apiece for Arsh Gosal and Ryan Alves.
Shahab Safi and David Grisham led the Timberwolves with 13 points apiece with Grisham scoring all of his points in the second half. Sierra’s Madden Melendez added 10 points.
