RIPON — Millennium of Tracy may have scored the first points of the game Thursday, but it was a long time between baskets as tournament host Ripon Christian rode the hot hand of Taylor Anema and outscored the Falcons 30-6 in the first half on the way to a resounding 60-31 opening-round win in the 25th Annual Ripon Christian Girls Basketball Tournament.
“This was a tough game to play,” Knights coach Ed Mulder said. “We played them earlier in the year in the Escalon tournament and we handled them pretty well then.
“We tried some things in the second half we may use tomorrow night but that will be a much tougher game as we have Argonaut. They press and bring a lot of intensity so we have to pick up our game.”
Anema scored 16 points — all in the first half — and made six rebounds, an assist and two steals.
“That is a high for her,” Mulder said of Anema. “She was hustling up and down the court and running the floor very, very well. She got a few rebounds and put-backs — she played very well in that first half.”
Anema said that her team was ready to go from the jump.
“At the beginning of the game we were definitely hyped and ready to go and play our hardest,” Clark said. “We knew we couldn’t go out there and expect to win so I am really proud of how we played.
“We passed the ball well. We moved the ball around and our defense was really good.”
Sarah Brown (two rebounds, two assists, steal) and Rilee Clark (rebound, steal) had nine points each in the balanced attack for Ripon Christian (8-4) with Lydia Bakker (five rebounds, assist) adding eight points and Morgan Van Elderen (nine assists, rebound) seven. Natasha Smith (six points) pulled down eight rebounds for the Knights. 
The Ripon Christian contest followed a thriller that saw tonight’s opponent for the Knights — Argonaut of Jackson — nip Central Catholic of Modesto 58-54.
“The game before us was really intense so we were all excited watching that,” Anema said. “And our coaches did a very good job of letting us know we had to go hard from the get-go.
“Fast breaks were going to be the key for us because we knew they had a little bit of a shorter bench so if we pushed the ball they weren’t necessarily going to be able to keep up with us.”
The Falcons (2-10) had just seven girls in uniform and were led by Kaleena Orlanes with 13 points behind four 3-pointers in the second half.
The Knights will square off tonight with the Mustangs in a semifinal contest at 7:30.