The early-season struggles continued for Manteca High’s boys basketball team Friday in the winner’s-bracket semifinal of the Anderson Holiday Invitational.

EJ Godfrey poured in 22 points for the Buffaloes but fouled out in the fourth quarter in a 58-52 loss to Central Valley of Shasta Lake.

Manteca (2-7), led by Ben Odell’s 14 points, snapped a five-game losing streak in the tournament opener Thursday, edging West Valley-Cottonwood, 43-40.

Friday was another case of the Buffaloes failing to build off of earlier success and finishing. They were up 16-9 before Central Valley (6-3) outscored them 20-8 in the second. The loss is the fifth in which Manteca was dropped by a single-digit margin.

Tyler Davis hit the big buckets for the Hawks down the stretch and finished with 18 points. He nailed a 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter to keep Manteca at arm’s length and later hit a jumper that beat the shot clock.

Carlos Mancasola led all players with 23 points.

“We turned the ball over too much and got into a little bit of foul trouble,” Manteca coach Dave Asuncion said. “We just didn’t play well. We have to rebound better and take care of the ball better.”

Manteca faces the loser of the Oroville-Anderson game today at 5 p.m. in the battle for third place. The contest is Manteca’s last before tipping off Valley Oak League play against Kimball-Tracy Jan. 5.

The Spartans (1-4) did well to battle with the Tigers of Sacramento in the early going. Lathrop led 17-16 after a quarter of play but couldn’t sustain the pace offensively.

Ricky Chavez recorded 10 points to lead the team, while Sal Alvarez and Shammit Kishore added nine apiece.

Lathrop faces former Valley Oak League rival Ceres at 1:30 p.m. today in the seventh-place game.