Stallions finally get back on court
Courtesy of Christopher Cross
Madera South’s Daniel Valdez drives to the hoop to score two of his team-high 11 points in Wednesday’s loss to Sanger.
After taking last week off to deal with COVID-19 issues, the Madera South Stallions boys basketball team finally took the court and dropped a tough 59-39 County/Metro Athletic Conference game to the Sanger Apaches.
Playing without head coach Corey Edmiston, the Stallions put up a valiant fight, but couldn’t overcome 30 turnovers, including 27 in the first three quarters in the loss Wednesday night. Assistant coach Julian Galvan led the Stallions on the bench.
The Apaches jumped out to a 40-18 lead at the half and cruised to the win. The Stallions committed 18 turnovers in the first two quarters and Sanger took advantage.
Daniel Valdez led the Stallions with 11 points. Leading scorer Joe Galvan was limited to just five points, but he pulled down 15 rebounds. Lucas Samaniego added seven points and eight rebounds.
The Stallions played with the Apaches for the first half of the first quarter. Valdez hit a 3-pointer for the first points of the game. Sanger came back with eight straight before Samaniego hit an off-balance jumper while getting fouled. He made the free throw for the 3-point play. Erik Cervantes pulled down an offensive board and hit a jumper while falling down to tie the game at eight with about three minutes to play in the first.
Sanger scored the next five points, but Galvan sank a free throw to cut the lead to four. The Apaches hit a jumper before the end of the first for a six-point lead.
However, the Apaches kept the pressure up and scored six more points for a 13-1 run.
Valdez stopped the run with a driving layup. However, the Stallions had trouble getting the ball out of their own end and committed six turnovers in a 23-3 Sanger run that extended the lead to 31-11.
Isaiah Ford finally stopped the run with a short bucket off a Valdez steal.
After a Sanger 3-pointer, Ford made a layup off a Valdez assist and hit a 3-pointer. However, Sanger closed the first half with back-to-back 3-pointers for a 22-point halftime lead.
The Apaches continued the pressure in the second half and extended the run to 12-0 into the third quarter for a 49-18 lead.
It took five minutes into the second half before the Stallions scored their first points of the third quarter with a Nathan Barron layup. After a Galvan rebound, Barron returned the favor and found Galvan, who hit a 15-foot jumper. Valdez drove in for a layup for a mini 6-0 run.
Sanger answered with a 3-pointer, but Angel Martinez-Garcia made a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 52-26 at the end of the third quarter.
Sanger scored the first four points of the fourth quarter to extend its lead to 30.
Valdez made a layup while falling down to stop the run and begin a 10-0 Stallions’ run. Galvan scored off an inbounds pass and Cervantes made three-out-of-four free throws. Valdez added a floater and Samaniego made a free throw, but it was too little, too late.
The Apaches sank a late 3-pointer and Samaniego answered with one of his own for the 59-39 Apaches’ win.
