There’s a measure of unpredictability with the Atwater High girls basketball team this season compared to past year’s during the Falcons’ run of five consecutive Central California Conference championships. The pieces are there for the Falcons to win a sixth straight title, however, with many of the key players from last year’s Sac-Joaquin Section championship team moving on, it’s going to take incredible effort and a new cast of contributors to step up in bigger roles.

 

Falcons coach JR Davis compared coaching games this year to opening a box of Cracker Jacks in that you never know what prize will be waiting for you in each box. Davis felt fortunate on Thursday night as Atwater pulled away late to improve to 11-8 overall and 2-0 in the Central California Conference with a 50-34 win over Golden Valley at Falcon Arena. 

 

“Anything is possible with this group,” Davis said. “We're not the team that can go down by 15 points and come back. This team, they need to start with energy and maintain that energy throughout the whole game and that's been our thing all year so far. We'll come out and score like 28 points in the first quarter, and then give up 26 points the next quarter. Out of our eight losses, two of them, St Mary's and Oak Ridge are good teams. The other six, we were up by like 15, 20 points. You just never know.”

Davis felt the energy was absent against a spirited Golden Valley team that had upsetting the Falcons on their mind. “I tip my hat to Golden Valley,” Davis said. “They did everything they needed to do to win. They played hard.”

 

Golden Valley’s last victory over Atwater came on Feb. 2, 2016. Since then the Falcons had defeated the Cougars 19 consecutive games, but Golden Valley found itself trailing by just six points at 36-30 with 6 minutes and 35 seconds left in the game. Kaylin Scheurich led the Cougars (9-11, 1-1 CCC) with 10 points and Mahek Kahlon chipped in with eight points. Zoe Gonzales and Alexis Diaz hit some key shots along the way. The Cougars were battling the defending section champs. 

 

Golden Valley coach Jerry Lee loved the fight his girls showed until the end. “I love the competition,” Lee said. “I love coaching this group. It’s fun. This is my third year having them and I’m excited for them. They’re special and if they don’t know that yet, after this game they should.”

Two seniors stepped up for the Falcons late in Saige Harcksen and Riley Leonardo, who combined for seven points during an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter that extended the lead to 47-30 with 1:48 left in the game. Sophomore Isabella Villa scored eight of her game-high 11 points in the third quarter to lead the Falcons in scoring. Freshman Mckenzie Wilkinson knocked down three 3-pointers as she finished with nine points.

 

With so many young players, one of the mysteries with this Falcons team is who is going to score night in and night out. “It's always somebody new,” Davis said. “It's a freshman, then it's a senior and then a sophomore. So we don’t know. It’s a Cracker Jack box. We don’t know what we’re going to get. When we have energy it’s a different story. Tonight we didn’t,we came out flat. We got to the bottom of the box and it was empty. Even my halftime speech didn’t even work.”

 

The Falcons will travel to El Capitan on Tuesday for a CCC showdown between the two programs who tied for the conference championship last season. Golden Valley will host Los Banos on Tuesday.

El Capitan 70, Buhach Colony 24 – Gauchos senior Avnoor Bains scored a season-high 25 points to go along with nine rebounds and six assists as El Capitan cruised to a victory to improve to 17-2 overall and 2-0 in the CCC. Rayonn Maxie added 17 points and senior Mady Dietz finished with eight points and 12 steals for El Capitan, which extended its winning streak to eight in a row.

 

Merced 53, Los Banos 25 – The Bears rebounded for their CCC opening loss to El Capitan with a win over the Tigers. Merced improved to 14-5 overall and 1-1 in the CCC. The Bears will travel to Buhach Colony on Tuesday.

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.