Sierra led East Union by 11 points at halftime and then silenced the partisan Dalben Center crowd with a 24-11 third quarter on the way to an 82-43 win in Valley Oak League boys basketball action.

“I thought in the first half we let them get open a couple of times,” Timberwolves coach Scott Thomason said. “No.15 (Austin Miller) had a couple of open shots and we lost track of some guys. I was disappointed with that.

“In the second half we wanted to come out and jump on them. I think we got the ball inside a little better in the second half. (Jess) Spivey hit some big shots for us. We had a great defensive effort on their best player No. 20 (Gyse Huslebosch).”

Spivey ended up with 11 points behind three 3-pointers, but the player of the game for Sierra (2-0 VOL, 13-1) was Josh Patton ,who had a double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds along with three blocks and two assists. Patton got six of his rebounds in the third quarter.

“I was told by the coaches to get on the boards and that is what I did,” Patton said. “But in the first half I was not doing that good on the boards so I came out second half working harder and moving my feet.”

Patton converted three three-point plays.

“I was finishing through contact,” Patton said. “And when I got on the free-throw line I just focused on that.”

Daniel Wyatt had four assists and two steals to go with his 10 points as he directed the Timberwolves offense most of the night.

“It is all about having a fast pace and distributing the ball,” Wyatt said. “Mainly we want to get the ball inside to our posts. Once we get it in that opens up a lot of stuff so our guards are able to get a shot or maybe penetrate and get it back in to the posts.”

Sierra won the battle of the boards 33-15 with Spivey and Hunter Johnson (eight points) getting six rebounds apiece.

Beset by foul trouble and Spivey’s suffocating defense Hulsebosch still managed to lead East Union (0-2, 6-8) with 11 points. Cody Keener added 10 points and Miller nine – all on 3-pointers. Chris Molina added six rebounds for the Lancers.

Sophomore

Sierra 37, East Union 35

Bikram Thiara forced a Lancers turnover with 2.6 seconds remaining to seal the Timberwolves victory.

Thiara led all scorers with 19 points and Noah Alt added 11 for Sierra. Delvon Bradford scored 11 for the Lancers.



Freshman

East Union 54, Sierra 53

The Timberwolves outscored East Union 17-12 in the fourth quarter but came up a points short.

Blake Greenlee led East Union with 15 points followed by Drew Sena with 14 and Kenny Wilkerson with 12.

Sierra’s Jaime Ochoa led all scorers with 23 points and Jacob Peterson added 10 points.