RIPON — Ripon Christian held visiting Escalon to single digits in the first two quarters Tuesday and rode the hot hand of Morgan Van Elderen to a 47-34 Trans-Valley League girls basketball victory.
Van Elderen scored seven of her 18 points in the first quarter and she finished with five rebounds and three assists. 
“We have been working on moving our feet more,” Van Elderen said. “And using our teammates and passing the ball around along with being more aggressive on offense and defense.”
Renae Heida drew the focus of the Cougars defense, but still managed 10 points along with five rebounds and four steals. Three of those steals came by drawing charging fouls.
“It’s hard when you get double teamed,” Heida said. “But I love physical games. Physical is kind of like my thing.
“I feel we controlled the flow, especially toward the end when we wanted to use the clock up. And coach always tells us we have to play our game, our pace.”
Kelly Engel added seven points for the Knights (2-1 TVL, 10-7 overall), all from the free-throw line.
No players from Escalon (0-3, 8-9) scored in double figures. Brooke Campbell and Emily McPherrin each had eight points for the Cougars.
“They didn’t have a lot of scorers,” Ripon Christian coach Ed Mulder said. “So, we were in a zone and kind of made them shoot outside. We knew once we scored some points we would be OK.
“The TVL is pretty even top to bottom and every game is going to be competitive.”

Ripon 70, Hughson 27
HUGHSON — The Indians buried Hughson (0-2, 8-5) with a 27-point fusillade in the third quarter before pitching a shutout in the fourth. The game was far from decided at halftime with Ripon (2-0, 11-3) ahead, 28-21.
Reina Sausedo led the way with 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Katie Kaiser and Tianna Sidtikun contributed 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Ripon has a big showdown ono the road Thursday with defending TVL champion Mountain House (2-0, 5-7). 

Sophomore
Escalon 27,
Ripon Christian 26
The Cougars held the Knights to two points in the fourth quarter and scored the final 14 points of the game to steal the win.
Sarah Brown led Ripon Christian with 12 points.