East Union put it all together at Sierra Friday night and had its best effort of the season in a 56-51 win.

The Lancers (1-1 Valley Oak League, 5-7 overall) posted a season-high in scoring and hit double digits in every quarter for the first time. It was a big step forward for an inexperienced squad learning on the fly.

“In all of the areas that we came up short in against Kimball (in Wednesday’s VOL-opening loss) we did a little bit better tonight,” East Union coach Jim Agostini said. “Our turnovers were down, we were getting easy buckets in transition, controlled the glass and executed our half-court sets.”

East Union started out well, taking a 16-11 lead before Sierra hit three 3-pointers to stay in it in the second quarter, closing in 30-28 by haflftime.

Olivia Vezaldenos paced EU with 17 points, Victoria Vezaldenos had 13 and Madison Hoffman and Marina Salyer turned in eight apiece. Sierra’s Celine Barber led all scorers with 18 points, Kayla Wilson added 13 and Katelyn Teixeira nine.

“East Union outhustled us,” Sierra coach Steve Unterholzner said. “They played a high-tempo game and we didn’t match their speed and their intensity and that was the difference.”



Sonora 42, Lathrop 40

It was another heartbreaker for host Lathrop (0-2, 5-9), which was coming off a buzzer-beating, two-point loss at Manteca.

“We had our opportunities, but we couldn’t get our shots to fall and we just didn’t take care of the ball,” Lathrop coach Ed Fang said. “I’m happy that we are competitive, but not happy with how we are hurting ourselves.”

Briana Fernandez led Lathrop with nine points. Janet Visaya chipped in eight points, and Loreal Taylor pulled down eight rebounds. Angela Gardella spearheaded three Wildcats (1-1, 8-4) in double figuresd with 13 points.