Though the Madera South boys basketball team hosted its first playoff game in the program’s history, it was the lower-seeded Dinuba that played like the team with home-court advantage.
The No. 8 Stallions (22- 6) couldn’t make a shot in the first quarter of Tuesday night’s Central Section Division III playoff game as they suffered a 54-36 first round exit loss to the No. 9 Emperors (20-7) at Madera South High.
“We came out very tight and not relaxed,” Madera South head coach Jody Sharp said. “We were playing way too fast and ended up shooting ourselves in the foot. We were getting shots but they weren’t going in.”
From the start, it was the Stallions that looked like the road team that was unfamiliar with the gym as they struggled with their shooting to trail 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. Dinuba’s Ernesto Ruiz, who scored 11 points in the game, and Moath Hamad combined for all of Dinuba’s first quarter scores...