Manteca’s Brooke Agdoma picked a good time to make her first field goal of the game Tuesday night.

After having been locked in a rough-and-tumble contest with host Sierra for three quarters, the Buffaloes started to pull away in the fourth. With 1:45 showing on the fourth-period clock, Agdoma took a ball that was in rotation and banged it in off the glass for a 3-pointer and a 10-point lead. Agdoma added one more from behind the arc for the final points of the night in a 63-46 Valley Oak League win.  

“It was an under-pressure decision,” Agdoma said of her first 3-pointer. “I wasn’t supposed to shoot it but it just felt right.

“On the second one they weren’t on me so I just decided to pull it.”

Marcelina Chaparro scored 10 of 20 Manteca points in the third quarter and gave the Buffaloes (1-0 VOL, 9-3 overall) the lead for good at 40-38 late in the third period. Chaparro led all scorers with 23 points and five steals, four assists and two rebounds.

“We had been lacking a little bit,” Chaparro said. “We started kind of slow.

“In that second half we told ourselves we were not going to let them win and we got more hyped up.”

The game was physical from the start, with the two teams combining for 48 fouls.

“I give credit to Sierra,” Manteca coach Oscar Calix said. “They came out in the first half with energy and gave it to us while we came out flat. In the second half, we picked it up when we started playing good defense and taking care of the ball with less turnovers.

“In the second half our defense stopped giving up driving lanes and did not allow them to get to the inside – just keeping them in front. Our girls’ biggest thing is defense, and in the first half we didn’t show what we could do on defense and in the second we picked it up and did what we were supposed to do.”

After leading 27-23 at halftime, the Timberwolves (2-1, 5-6) started to self-destruct in the second half and ended up committing 28 total turnovers while missing 11 second-half free throws.

“Toward the fourth quarter the little errors caught up to us,” Sierra coach Trisha Werre said. “Things like turnovers and not faking a pass to make a pass hurt us. I believe we beat ourselves in the second half. We need to learn to be a little more mentally tougher when things aren’t going our way, so when we make a mistake we let it go and play on and we don’t get stuck on it.

“We have been working on taking care of the ball and in the last couple of games we have been doing that well but today, especially toward the end of the game, it was just turnover after turnover.”

Olivia Werner led the Timberwolves with 15 points along with five steals, four rebounds and three assists. Teammate Abigail Chapman (five points, three steals, block) led all rebounders with 10.

On Thursday, Manteca plays at Weston Ranch and Sierra plays at Weston Ranch next Tuesday with both games tipping off at 7:30 p.m.

 

Junior varsity

Sierra 49, Manteca 43

The Timberwolves’ Marissa Gonzalez led all scorers with 18 points.

Sierra’s Taylor Zalunardo added 13 posts.

Jade Ikhero tallied a double-double for the Buffaloes with 15 points and 13 rebounds and Jayde Anderson chipped in 11 points.  

 

Freshman

Manteca 37, Sierra 22

The Buffaloes’ Tamayah Valentine flirted with a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Manteca’s Kalaja Reese led all scorers with 15 points and Dejia Blair added nine rebounds.

Terra Davidson led the Timberwolves with 12 points.