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Buffaloes bring home crown
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The Manteca Buffaloes eliminated any doubt as to who was the best squad in the Ceres Tournament, dismantling Johansen High in the championship 64-35 to earn the tourney title.

Mia Ramirez continued her impressive start to the season, scoring 28 points and grabbing six rebounds on her way to tournament Most Valuable Player honors. Teammate Mikayla Hasal (7 steals, 5 assists) was also honored on the All-Tournament team.

“Mia is like our steady hand,” Manteca head coach Andrea Hiatt said. “She really doesn’t do anything wrong. She is very steady and it was kind of nice for her to have a big game like this and score a lot of points.

“She has been doing all the dirty work, all the hard work and doesn’t necessarily get all the stats.”

Karleasha Thompson had 11 points and eight steals in Manteca’s championship win.

Manteca established control from the onset, going into the halftime intermission with a comfortable 46-20 halftime lead.

“We came into this tournament expecting to play good basketball,” Hiatt said. “We definitely would have been disappointed if we did not win this tournament.”

The Buffaloes will be back on the court Monday when they meet up with West High at home.

Liberty Ranch Tourney

Ripon 63, Mira Loma 19

Ripon finished off its work in the Liberty Ranch Tournament in style, blasting Mira Loma in a 40-point win for the tournament’s consolation crown.

Each member of the Indians got into the scorebook, with Tia Sidtikun leading the way with 12. Ruth Waters also finished in double figures with 10, while Haylee Fannin chipped in with eight.

“Today the other team struggled, but we did a nice job on defense and created a lot of turnovers,” Ripon head coach George Contente said. “Those things really helped us out a lot.”