Devin Nunez knows how to slam a door.

Toward the end of the third quarter Tuesday night visiting Turlock had trimmed a 16-point deficit to eight when Nunez took a pass from Jordan Thompson and drained one of his three 3-pointers to start Sierra on a 13-2 run on the way to a 63-41 non-league boys basketball win.

“That was a big play right there and we needed that 3,” Timberwolves coach Scott Thomason said. “He has been struggling lately and I am trying get him confidence. He knows he is a good player and it is just a matter of time with him.”

Nunez finished with 13 points and seven assists. A pair of his baskets came off of assists from Daniel Wyatt (five assists).

“Daniel (Wyatt) does a great job of penetrating and then getting me open to set up for shots,” Nunez said. “For him to have confidence in me to hit those is huge.

“They came back but we just kept battling and battling and we saw Josh (Patton) was on fire and we started getting him the ball. Also, it was good that a lot of our other players were hitting shots too.”

Patton was a force underneath, leading all scorers with 20 points while grabbing nine rebounds and blocking five shots.

“We were battling underneath tonight,” Patton said. “Our main goal was to protect the paint and that is what we did. All the posts did a good job with that.

“On the offensive end we dominated inside too. We just had a good overall night in the paint.”

Joining Patton in the paint was Jess Spivey who not only contributed with five rebounds he had 10 points behind a pair of 3-pointers.

“Coach (Thomason) keeps telling me to shoot,” Spivey said. “He tells me to have confidence in my shot and I do and sometimes it goes in.”

Sierra (6-1) started the game on a 14-2 run.

“I like the way we jumped on them,” Thomason said. And the way we started our second half with a little bit more purpose of getting the ball inside. Our goal was to hold them under 47 points and we did that.

“I am proud of our effort. We had some lulls where it was a little ugly and we didn’t play that great. But we are going to rebound and play defense, and if we can shoot the ball we will be in for a good night.

The Timberwolves out-rebounded Turlock (5-3) 29-21 with Hunter Johnson (four assists) getting nine.



Sophomore

Sierra 50, Turlock 40

The Timberwolves withstood a 20 point Bulldogs fourth-quarter prolonged by both teams combining for 48 total fouls.

Jamille Grady and Noah Alt led Sierra with 11 points. Victor Elijah added nine points, Marcos Castillo eight (all in the first quarter) and Bikran Thiara seven.

Freshman

Turlock 53, Sierra 43

Jacob Peterson led the Timberwolves with nine points.

Jaime Martinez and J.T. Ortiz-Martinez added seven points apiece and Carson Anderson and Oscar Pardo six each.