Lesson learned.

Manteca High’s boys basketball team carried a considerable lead into the second quarter for a second time this week on Friday, only this time the Buffaloes won. They warded off a late charge from host Gregori of Modesto to win their final nonleague contest, 60-48.

Manteca (8-5) was coming off Monday’s gut-wrenching 57-56 overtime loss to visiting Liberty Ranch, which crawled out of a 20-3 first-quarter hole.

“Again we got off to a nice start and we had a solid defensive effort for three quarters,” Manteca coach Dave Asuncion said. “(In the) fourth quarter just lost track of the hot hand and they were able to capitalize on some turnovers.”

That hot hand belonged to Darius Nuttall, whose four 3-pointers in the fourth helped Gregori (7-6) get to within 10 after it trailed 16-2 after one and 47-24 through three.

The Buffaloes were led by Mikey Hatfield’s 20 points and nine rebounds. Miguel Lopez contributed 15. Manteca begins Valley Oak League play next Tuesday and hosts Lathrop.

Lathrop 88, Lodi 69

Ahead 40-38 at half, the Spartans (7-4) picked up the tempo and raced away with it in the third to advance to the Rocklin Holiday Classic consolation championship.

Nicolaus Obazuaye amassed 27 points, and Nilo Yuson helped power the transition game with 20 points and 20 assists. Isaiah Ellis garnered 12 rebounds to go with 17 points. Eric Spencer chipped in with 15 points.

“We utilized everybody in our offense — all but one player scored,” Lathrop coach Nathan McGrath said. “When we have multiple guys scoring we’re a pretty tough team to defend.”

Lathrop faces another tough test in Rocklin-based Whitney (9-6) today starting at 2.

East Union 60, Enochs 51

Enochs (3-8) had no answer for Lancer center Jacob Danhoff, who buried an early 3-pointer and did his usual work inside en route to scoring a game-high 24 points. Drew Ruiz and Robbie Gleockler chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Jared Smith paced Enochs with 18 points. East Union wraps up its pre-league schedule at 7-4 and heads to Kimball on Tuesday.

“I think we’re definitely in a better spot than we were a couple months ago,” first-year EU coach Ryan Tarr said. “The kids are still learning to adapt to a new system and doing a good job.”   

Sierra 65, Johansen 48

Joshua Patton and Hunter Johnson dominated the shorter Vikings, scoring 23 and 21 points, respectively.

“We took advantage of Johansen not having a whole lot of size, and that was part of the game plan was to pound it inside,” Sierra coach Scott Thomason said. “Those guys did a good job inside for us tonight. Patton dominated the first half not just with scoring but with blocking shots and rebounding.”

Devin Nunez contributed 11 points, including a key 3-pointer that kept Johansen at bay in the fourth. Sierra (7-5) led by as much as 21 points in the second half, but the Vikings, led by Maurice Woods’ 23 points, got as close as 10 in the fourth.

Sierra opens league at Oakdale.

Sophomore

Enochs 57, East Union 54

Austin Miller poured in 20 of his 28 points in the first half, but the Squires (9-2) couldn’t get much scoring elsewhere in a double-overtime loss.

Freshman

East Union 76, Enochs 24

Chris Molina and Angel Sena piled up 17 points each, as the Pages continued their hot streak to start the season. Sena scored all of his points in the first half.

Delvon Bradford added 10 of his 13 points in the third quarter. Scott Morenzone contributed 12 to the onslaught.