Tracy nailed 13 shots from behind the 3-point arc Tuesday night and had four players in double figures, holding off host Manteca at the end in a 66-63 win for the Bulldogs in non-league boys basketball action at Winter Gym.
With 1:05 left in the game, Spencer Briscoe (nine points, 11 rebounds, five steals, two assists) converted a steal for Manteca (2-2) to draw it in, 64-61. That score would hold for a minute until Mehtaj Mehrok (nine points, seven rebounds, three steals) tipped in a miss to pull Manteca within a point.
Tracy (1-1) buried two free throws in the closing seconds and a long-range Buffaloes 3-pointer was off the mark at the buzzer.
With the Manteca football team still playing, the Buffaloes have some holes in their lineup.
“We have too many inexperienced players on this team right now,” Manteca coach Jason Hitt said. “We have two sophomores starting and football is still on. We had too many turnovers. Obviously those sophomore mistakes are killing us right now. Missed layups, missed free throws and turnovers or we win the game — it’s not even close.
“I thought Tracy came ready to play. They hit a lot of shots and we did not execute what was drawn up. That’s them being tired and exhausted with only playing seven or eight deep right now.”
The Buffaloes’ Jordan Burciaga was a force to be reckoned with, leading all scorers with 31 points along with seven rebounds. Jake Wirstlin added 12 points and four rebounds.
Manteca won the battle of the boards, 33-27.
“They are a big team compared to us,” Bulldogs coach Junior Cueva said. “We are down a couple of guys and they definitely had a size advantage over us and they won the boards.
“When we stayed in our system we did a good job of slowing the game down and when we tried to run on them we started making mistakes.”
Rasheed Asaf led Tracy with 23 points. Tommy Chavez added 15 points, Christian Avila 13 and Tyler Sauceda 10.
Junior varsity
Tracy 70, Manteca 37
Justice Chase led the Buffaloes with 11 points and Mike Arriola added nine points.
