MOUNTAIN HOUSE — Lathrop was able to find its shooting stroke in the second half Wednesday at Mountain House, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with these galloping Mustangs.
The Spartans’ struggles against their Western Athletic Conference rivals continued, as they fell 75-63 to drop out of first place. Mountain House (5-1 WAC, 16-2 overall), which has a loss against Los Banos, is now 8-1 all-time against Lathrop (5-1, 10-8).
The Mustangs played with more urgency and energy from the start, rolling to a 10-2 lead that was stretched to 22, 58-36, late in the third period.
“Offensively, our shot selection was poor,” Lathrop coach Robin Hong said. “A lot of our possessions were one pass away from getting the shot we wanted. At the start, we had consecutive turnovers and allowed some runs; we were just not being secure and strong with the ball, making lazy passes and stuff like that. And after making lazy passes we’re not sprinting back and hustling on defense. Our transition defense was poor. They were able to expose that with their athleticism.”
E.J. Campbell led Mountain House with 23 points, five rebounds and three steals. The junior guard made two 3s and scored 10 points during the Mustangs’ 26-point outburst in the third quarter.
Isaiah Chenier added 17 points, five rebounds and six steals. Thurmond Thorpe tallied 10 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Camryn Hayes knocked down three 3s and made a few acrobatic reverse layups en route to scoring 20 points for Lathrop. Ahmad Jacquet erupted for all 19 of his points in the second half, draining five 3s. He also finished with six rebounds and four assists. Quentin Bohoman (five steals) and Napoleon Reeves (seven rebounds) chipped in with seven points apiece, and Christian Buerster pulled down nine rebounds.
“We’re a good team when the shots are falling, but we’re usually a team that works off our defense,” Hayes said. “We like to make our offense come from defense, and that’s when we get going and our energy is high. I think we match up with them athletically, they just made more shots than us and had more runs than us.”
Lathrop closes the first half of conference play Friday at Los Banos (5-0, 14-2). Hong said the latest setback can be used as a learning experience moving forward.
“We’re best when we play together and as unselfishly as possible,” he said. “We have plenty of guys that can score the ball and garner attention from defenses, so our willingness to make that extra can be the difference. I think that was the biggest difference, besides the transition defense, in this game.”
