STOCKTON — Domination.
Top-seeded Weston Ranch came out on fire Wednesday night and cooled off very little, scoring the first 13 points of the contest and 28 of the first 34 on the way to a one-sided 71-40 win over visiting No. 16 Sierra in opening-round action of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs.
The Cougars (28-1) have won 27 straight.
“Give Weston Ranch a lot of credit,” Timberwolves coach Scott Thomason said. “I knew we couldn’t get off to a bad start like that. We were down 13-0 and then 24-4 and we don’t have the fire power to come back from a big deficit like that.
“I am disappointed with our guys for not fighting for more rebounds and we did not take care of the ball very well in the first half. And again, give them a lot of credit and I hope they go on and win the section.”
The Cougars were hitting on all cylinders in the third meeting of the season between the Valley Oak League rivals, more than doubling up Sierra (16-12) on the boards 35-15 while blocking 12 shots and making 10 steals.
Leading 41-17 at halftime, Weston Ranch put the exclamation point on the game in the third quarter with 24 points behind Gavin Wilburn’s pair of 3-pointers for two of his team’s 10 buckets from behind the arc.
“The ball movement looked really good in the second half,” Cougars coach Chris Teevan said. “But there is some room for improvement
“And as for defense, our point guard Titus Haley has turned into a pretty good on-ball defender. He sets the tone for our defense and that sets the tone for everything. We have to defend well to get out into transition.”
Wilburn had an outstanding all-around game with 15 points, a whopping five blocks — four in the first quarter — five rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“Today we came out, executed and played defense,” Wilburn said.
Weston Ranch’s Donjae’ Lindsey scored seven of his game-high 16 points in the first quarter and he finished with five rebounds, two blocks, two steals and an assist.
“We came out with energy,” Lindsey said. “We did what we had to do. We executed well and played defense well — we kept them from scoring.”
Lydell King added 10 points for the Cougars. Eduardo Jasso led Sierra with 10 points and Kendrick Currey added nine.
The Cougars host No. 8 Center of Antelope on Friday night at 7. The Pioneer Valley League champion improved to 21-7 after ousting No. 9 El Capitan, 59-55.