MODESTO — Central Catholic and Justin Traina struggled with their outside shot on Thursday but still managed to complete a season sweep of Manteca with a 52-47 victory.
The visiting Buffaloes (5-2, 16-7 overall) slipped further away from first-place Weston Ranch (6-0, 21-1), which hosts them on Saturday.
“We’ll have to be more focused than we were tonight and pay closer attention to details,” Manteca coach Brett Lewis said.
He doesn’t fault team’s effort in the rematch with the defending league champion Raiders (7-1, 17-7), particularly on the defensive end. Central Catholic made 1 of 16 3-pointers, and Traina had just five points going into the final possessions of the game when he made consecutive free throws to finish with nine points.
The 6-foot-3 Traina had two 30-plus-point outbursts and emerged as Central Catholic’s leading scorer since opening VOL play at Manteca on Jan. 2. The Raiders rolled, 59-43.
Thursday’s tilt was far more competitive. Manteca trailed 48-47 with about a minute to go, but Isaiah Victor missed an open 3 from the corner.
Victor finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, Domonick Victor had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Jorge Cedano contributed 10 points. Myles Clayton led Central Catholic with 16 points, and Dayton Magana turned in 12.
“We had 16 turnovers and gave up 17 offensive rebounds — you’re not going to win games that way against good teams,” Lewis said. “It’s a frustrating loss. We did a pretty good job defensively but just couldn’t do a lot of the little things to help us win a big game.”

Kimball 60, Sierra 57
It was another heartbreaker at home for the Timberwolves (3-4, 15-6), who were coming off a buzzer-beating loss to rival East Union.
The back-and-forth thriller came down to the closing seconds with both teams out of timeouts. Ryan Borgeson buried a tying 3-pointer with 10 seconds left for Sierra, and moments later Kimball’s John Harris drew a foul as he drove into the lane on the other end of the court.
Harris put the Jaguars (2-5, 10-12) ahead for good by making the first of two free throws, and 6-6 forward Kainoa Ballungay closed the show with a put-back dunk after the second attempt was missed.
Ballungay finished with a game-high 21 points, and Harris had 16. Kendrick Currey fired 20 points and three 3s for Sierra. Borgeson ended with 10, and Romeo Sesma added nine.

East Union 61, Oakdale 44
There was no last-second drama this time around for East Union (3-6, 12-13), which celebrated Senior Night with a decisive victory. The Lancers’ previous two league wins were earned by hitting buzzer-beating 3s at Oakdale and at Sierra.
Their hot shooting continued from their dramatic win over Sierra on Tuesday. Christian Cuevas led the way with 24 points, and Parmbir Khattra poured in 19. They each drained four 3-pointers. Eric Nascimento did his part by pulling down 12 rebounds.

Junior varsity
Manteca 55, Central Catholic 35
The Buffaloes (5-2, 8-11) bolted out to a 15-5 first-quarter lead and didn’t look back in this first-place battle.
Manteca opened up a 32-12 halftime lead thanks to a hot start from beyond the 3-point arc. Khalid Robinson hit four of its eight 3s in the first half and made all five of his total attempts to end up with a game-high 20 points.
Jake Wirstlin knocked down three 3s and had 14 points.

Freshman
Oakdale 51, East Union 43
The Lancers came up short despite Samuel Stewart’s game-high 13 points. Nathan Rodriguez chipped in with eight.
Jonathan Kraude and Jackson Nunes led Oakdale with 12 and 10 points, respectively.