Season opener
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1/4/06
7:15 PM
East Union (Manteca, CA) **L 59-65
mantecabulletin.com
East Union lassos The Ranch
Steffen Spinks and the East Union High Lancers couldn’t have felt anymore confident on Wednesday after opening up their Valley Oak League schedule with a 65-59 win over Weston Ranch High.The Lancers broke loose during the opening half of the contest by going on 16-6 run to start the game. East Union jumped on top of the Cougars early and wouldn’t look back for the remainder of the contest.“Weston Ranch and East Union. First big game in the league. Everyone was making a big deal about it,” said Spinks. “Even the players.”Spinks had the type of night every high school basketball player dreams of.“Everything just felt good when it left my hands,” Spinks said. “It was just a hot night for me I guess.”Spinks guessed right.
The 6-1 senior scored a game-high 30 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had six assists against Weston Ranch. Spinks was responsible for 20 of the Lancer’s 35 first half points, as he went to the free-throw line six times during the contest.“He’s very difficult to stop,” East Union coach Eric Simoni said of Spinks. “His athleticism, his ability to get to the rim and finish shots really stood out in my mind. Not only that, he broke people down.”Davon Jones scored 17 points for Weston Ranch as they trailed by 10 points at the halftime break. Walter Jackson and Mic’eal Thomas each scored eight for the Cougars while Daniel Brown went for nine.“They were comfortable and played with poise,” Simoni said. “We played our best basketball in the first five minutes.”Weston Ranch began to feel a sense of urgency towards the end of the third quarter as they responded by applying some full-court pressure on the Lancers, which would later enable the Cougars to make a run during the game’s last and final quarter.Jordan McDaniel had 18 points for the Lancers while going 4-of-5 from beyond the three-point line during the contest. Ryan Fisher had six points and six rebounds for East Union as they outscored the Cougars 15-14 in the third quarter.Weston Ranch’s full-court press slowed the Lancers down considerably during their attempt to close out the ball game. East Union was forced to put the ball on the floor as they slightly struggled with advancing the ball up the court against the Cougar’s pressure.“We just started rushing things when we should have slowed it down,” Spinks said. “We had a lot more fire in the first half. We started slacking off in the fourth quarter and because of that they started to climb back in it.”The Cougars shot 8-of-16 from the free-throw strike while the Lancers went 8-of-13. Brown pulled East Union within nine as he converted three straight free-throws with 0:46 left to play. Jackson pulled the Cougars within seven points with 0:19 seconds remaining. Weston Ranch went on 13-5 as they pulled within seven points of East Union, but that was the closest they would get.“We just didn’t have an answer for Steffen Spinks tonight,” Weston Ranch coach Bill Slikker said. “And that was the bottom line.”
Junior Varsity
In junior varsity action, the Weston Ranch basketball team defeated East Union 61-59 in overtime on Wednesday. The Cougars won the overtime session 8-6 as they dropped East Union in the conference opener.Josh Bowen, Daniel Castillo, Brian Morris and Darrel Johnson all scored 12 points for East Union and their balanced scoring attack against the Cougars.
Freshman
Weston Ranch defeated East Union 37-33 on Wednesday as the Lancers came from behind to win the contest.Garret Fisher had 10 points, Nick Garcia had eight and Ray Gonzales had seven points for the Lancers in their first VOL win of the season.
posted by aliciacya @ 4:01 PM
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