HAWKS GROUND WARRIORS
GALT — In its quest to repeat as the Sierra Valley Conference champions, the Liberty Ranch High boys basketball team is living by the age-old sports saying of one game at a time.
Meanwhile, the Galt High boys basketball team is still looking for its first SVC win of the season.
The cross-town rivals met inside Warrior Gym on Tuesday night to start the second half of conference play. The game belonged to the visiting Hawks, who posted a 73-21 victory over the host Warriors.
The win keeps Liberty Ranch (5-1 in the SVC, 16-7 overall) in the title chase with Cordova, which beat Rosemont 76-71 in an SVC game, also on Tuesday. Cordova and Rosemont were tied with Liberty Ranch for first place going into their conference games. But Cordova knocked off Rosemont 76-71 in overtime. Galt (0-6 in the SVC, 7-13) won its last game over Turlock Christian, 54-50, on the road on Dec. 29.
Rebounding set the tone for the Hawks in the first quarter. Liberty Ranch pulled down more than a dozen boards — offensively and defensively — for a 19-2 lead after the first eight minutes. The squad finished with 59 in the game. Grabbing the bulk of those boards were forward Corey Potthoff and centers Jack Lopez and Chris Fielding.
“I was notified late in the first half that we were rebounding in an abundance,” said Liberty Ranch coach Josh Williams. “I didn’t realize we had as many rebounds. In the first quarter, we had lots of good shots, and we got a lot of rebounds because of it. We rebounded well, and that’s one of our priorities night in and night out, to get as many opportunities to win.”
Another factor for the Hawks against the Warriors was depth. Williams shuttled the bulk of his 12player roster throughout the second quarter. That quickly wore down Galt, which has nine players but only eight suited up.
“Depth and maturity,” said Galt coach Phil Ricci of Liberty Ranch. “A lot of guys played a factor.”
Galt found opportunities to score inside the paint in the second quarter behind freshman center Logan Mayfield, who scored six of the Warriors’ eight points. A new offensive wrinkle seemed to have thrown the Hawks off guard in the early minutes of the quarter.
But Liberty Ranch continued to run and down the court, forcing turnovers defense as well as rebounding. That led to a 38-11 halftime lead.
“Our athleticism really helped,” Williams said. “Our defense really helped. We were able to pressure
the ball and force some turnovers. Coming off the bench, we just replaced a guy with another guy that’s capable. The bench helped.”
In the third quarter, Liberty Ranch had split scoring among four players. Guard Chandler Garcia (13 points) and freshman guard Jalen Patterson (game-high 17 points), as both combined for eight of the Hawks’ 22 points. Entering the final quarter, the Hawks held a 60-19 advantage. Game officials called for a running clock in the final eight minutes of the game, per California Interscholastic Federation bylaws.
Behind Garcia and Patterson in scoring for the Hawks were guard Jayden Baroni and Potthoff with nine points each. Guard Jaime Gonzalez followed with eight points, Lopez six, Fielding four, Braeden Saramago three and guards Jeramyah Rodriguez and Patrick Roberts two each.
Mayfield was the Warriors’ leading scorer with six points. Bailey Mainone, along with guards Christian Strayhand and Brian Meri, had four points each, point guard Robert Bulahan two and forward Tyler Rickenbach one.
Liberty Ranch still has two more SVC games left before its rematch at Cordova, which defeated the Hawks 65-62 at the Hawks’ gym toward the end of last month. The Hawks and Lancers clash on Friday, Feb. 10.
“Coming into the league, it was all about one (game) at a time,” Williams said. “After we got our first loss to Cordova, it’s still one game at a time. We’ve spent a lot of time and energy talking about Galt. Now we’re going to spend the next few days talking about Rosemont. We have four, real tough games.”
Ricci feels his Warriors will recover from Tuesday’s loss. The learning process has been painful for Galt in conference play, but the first-year coach feels that the hard work and patience will pay off in the end.
“When you lose an x number of games, it’s hard to get back up,” Ricci said. “They try, they give me their heart. I just keep telling ‘we’re going to get one.’ We’ll take our bumps and bruises now. In the future, I’m hoping that we can surprise a lot of people.”
Liberty Ranch will host Rosemont on Friday. Galt makes the trek to Union Mine, also on Friday.
Contact reporter Mike Bush at mikeb@lodinews.com. Follow on Twitter: @MBushLodiSports.