STOCKTON — The Manteca High boys basketball team put its full squad on display for the first time this season Tuesday at St. Mary’s with six players from the school’s Sac-Joaquin Section championship football squad joining the herd.
It will take some time for the Buffaloes to jell, as evidenced by the 57-46 defeat.
“It’s just their second day of basketball and we wanted to get them to hit the ground running, but you could tell there was rust,” Manteca coach Brett Lewis said. “I don’t think that was the reason why we lost the game; everything was just flat tonight. St. Mary’s wanted to beat us bad and they came out and played hard.”
The Rams (3-5), who were paced by 6-foot-6 sophomore Bryce Johnson’s 19 points and 14 rebounds, jumped ahead 7-0 at the start and held Manteca (1-2) scoreless for much of the opening quarter.
The period ended with one of the Buffaloes’ few highlights. Gino Campiotti, the star quarterback for the football team, inbounded a pass from beneath Manteca’s own bucket and hit Tydus Verhoeven for a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. St. Mary’s was still ahead, 10-6.
“We only had three points for the first 7 minutes, 58 seconds,” Lewis said. “We’re not going to win games that way.”
Verhoeven led the Buffaloes with 14 points, while Dwight Young added 12. Christopher Monckton scored 15 for St. Mary’s.
Manteca will look to bounce back Thursday against Liberty Ranch in the first round of the Cosumnes Oaks tournament.

GIRLS
Sierra 43, Riverbank 37
The Timberwolves (1-4) tallied their first win of the season, with Alison Edwards pouring in a game-high 21 points to lead the charge.
Britney Spivey contributed seven points, and Jaida Franklin keyed Sierra with defensive hustle.
“We executed when we needed to and pulled out the win,” Sierra coach Martha Spivey said.

Pitman 40, Lathrop 32
TURLOCK — Lathrop (4-2) was without two starters Tuesday but did well to make a game of it after falling behind 11-1 at the outset.
The Spartans ended up taking a 19-18 halftime lead but ultimately could not cool off the hot shooting of Olivia Salafia and Gracie Alves, who each buried four 3-pointers and scored 12 points for the Pride (3-4).
Mary Cotton led the Spartans with eight points, 10 rebounds and six steals.