MOUNTAIN HOUSE — The Weston Ranch girls basketball team finally played with the spark first-year head coach Darrell Johnson was looking for, it just didn’t come soon enough in Monday’s 55-50 nonleague defeat against Mountain House.

“On the board I wrote down ‘urgency’ and ‘intensity,’ and they showed it in the fourth quarter,” Johnson said. “Honestly, if we played the whole game like we did in the fourth quarter it would have been a different result.”

Weston Ranch (2-10), which has lost five in a row, outscored the Mustangs (9-3) 16-13 in the final period. It wasn’t enough to overcome a 17-of-34 shooting effort from the free-throw line and 24 turnovers (against two assists).

“Can’t win that way,” Johnson said. “We missed another 25 or so layups tonight, and that might be being nice.”

Cierra Jones paced Weston Ranch with 16 points. Vanessa Vega added nine points, eight rebounds and four steals. Andrea Garcia had 19 points to lead Mountain House, a first-year varsity team that has won four straight. 

Weston Ranch has four games this week and next plays Wednesday against visiting Oakdale in Valley Oak League play.

Varsity boys

Clovis North 77,

Weston Ranch 70

FRESNO — The Cougars (11-4) trailed for most of the game against one of the Central Section’s top squads. D’Angelo Finley and Fred Lavender scored 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Clovis North (11-5), No. 6 in the MaxPreps Central Section rankings, led 23-17 after the first quarter and staved off Weston Ranch from there. 

“We’re a team in transition right now,” Weston Ranch coach Chris Teevan said. “We had a good effort in the second half so hopefully we can build on that.”

Sophomore girls

Weston Ranch 55,

Mountain House 11

Anesja Lomax poured in 17 points, while Jaylah Evans and Asani White added 10 apiece in the blowout win.