Visiting Ripon rode the hot hands of Landon Gillespie and Ethan Baur to a dominating lead through three quarters Wednesday night before East Union made a fourth-quarter push but could not narrow the gap enough as the Indians held on for a 59-44 win in non-league boys basketball at Dalben Center.
“Things like the fourth quarter tonight have been our Achilles’ heel,” Ripon coach Dean Balcao said. “The same thing happened last game and that’s something we have to work on. Kind of the fourth-quarter blues.
“But our starts are way better. We just have to start finishing and playing four quarters.”
Gillespie (four rebounds, two assists, two steals) scored 11 of his game-high 21 points in the second period to spot the Indians (2-0) to a 28-19 halftime lead.
“It was a team effort,” Gillespie said. “We play well on defense and that transitioned into our offense.”
Baur (five rebounds, four steals, assist) took over from Gillespie in the third period when he tallied nine of his 13 points in a 20-point quarter to put Ripon ahead 48-29 going into the fourth period.
“In the third quarter we knew they were going to try to break our zone,” Baur said. “We just got some steals and made our layups which gave us momentum.”
Balcao was pleased with the performance of Baur and Gillespie.
“Ethan (Baur) came off the bench,” Balcao said. “He did an excellent job. He’s really fast – they call him Mighty Mouse or the Tasmanian Devil. He’s just go, go, go.
“Landon (Gillespie), one of our seniors, is one of our better scorers. He is doing a good job and getting better.”
Dawson Downs (eight points, six rebounds two steals), Marcys Madoski (seven points, seven rebounds, two steals, assist) and Jack Schoolland (six points, two steals, two rebounds) rounded out the Indians attack with Madoski slamming a resounding dunk late in the game.
The Lancers (0-2) took advantage of four Ripon turnovers in the first two minutes of the fourth period to start the final stanza on an 11-2 run behind six points from Sergio Quezada (10 points, three rebounds) to come within 50-40, but that was as close as East Union would come.
“We dug ourselves a little hole in the second quarter,” Lancers coach Dutch Ell said. “They went zone and that kind of put us in a funk.
“In the second half after breaking it down a little but we found a way to attack and get to the middle and break up the zone a little but it was too late. Turnovers killed us a little bit but I am proud that we fought back and didn’t crumble. We made a push but it was just a little too late.”
Robby Espinosa shared high-point honors for East Union with Quezada at 10 points. Jackson Fay added seven points and Kirk Simoni six.
On Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Ripon travels to Downey and the Lancers host Gregori.
Junior varsity
East Union 50, Ripon 32
The Lancers jumped out to a 22-6 first-period lead and never looked back.
Anthony Oteri led East Union with 11 points followed by J.P. Abrew with 10 points – eight in the fourth quarter – and Ricky Soria with nine.
Gino Calderara scored eight points for the Indians with seven apiece for Tip Paini and Brett Skavdahl.
