Visiting East Union jumped out fast and finished strong Monday night in a 54-31 Lancers win over Ripon in non-league girls basketball.

East Union (6-2) jumped out to a 10-0 lead and outscored the Indians (3-4) 15-2 in the fourth quarter.

“You can’t get 20-point leads in the first 10 minutes of a game,” Lancers coach Jim Agostini said. “You have to progress as the game goes on.

“I really like the way we were patient in our offense; we moved the ball. When it was open in the post we went post, and when it was open outside we moved it a little bit from side to side with Ava (Barrera) and (Alexa) Zuniga hitting some perimeter shots.

“Our rebounding was good and we made some adjustments at halftime to limit them to 12 points in the second half with just two in the fourth period.”

Barrera led all scorers with 20 points, and Zuniga added 12 points.

“We had a really good game as a team,” Barrera said. “We passed the ball, we shared the ball and our defense picked it up in the second half.

East Union won the battle of the boards 36-22 with Donnese Payne (four points, five steals) grabbing 12 rebounds and Mariela Navarro (five points) tallying nine rebounds and making two steals.

“At first I was a little slow getting down the court,” but I picked it up in the second half,” Payne said.  

After trailing 13-3 at the end of the first period, Ripon clawed its way back to trail just 23-19 at halftime. But the Lancers pulled away in the second half with runs of 7-0 in the third period and 8-0 to start the final quarter.

“We battled back,” Indians coach Rick Inderbitzin said. “I am pretty proud of how we did that.

“They are a good team and they are going to hit their shots, and there were some times when we didn’t get out on their shooters but we battled inside a little bit.”

Kaylee Lehmkuhl paced Ripon with nine points, four rebounds and two steals. Danika Escola added seven points and five rebounds and Kaylee Inderbitzin made five points and five rebounds.

East Union travels to Atwater tonight at 7:15, and on Wednesday the Indians face Los Banos at 5:15 p.m. in the Patterson Tournament.

 

Junior varsity

East Union 45, Ripon 32

The Lancers’ Bellah Crabb poured in 21 points to lead all scorers.

East Union’s Michaela Tarr added eight points and Samantha Escamilla seven.

Ahanjad Dhami paced the Indians with 18 points and Itxel Reynoso added six points.