In only their third game of league play, the Turlock High Bulldogs met the Buhach Colony Thunder at home on Friday night in a Central California Conference showdown that proved to be lopsided from the get-go.
With near sellout crowd and the student section roaring chants throughout the night, the home court advantage was well in favor of the Bulldogs who took down the Thunder, 63-34, en route to their fourth consecutive victory.
“We got this one, but it did concern me heading in because Buhach played Merced tough,” said Turlock head coach Doug Cornfoot. “I didn’t want us to let down, but I was happy on how we came out at them quick and hard and I think that gave us a chance to play a bit more free so I was happy with the effort.”
After Golden Valley’s loss on Friday night the Bulldogs are the sole leaders and final undefeated team in the CCC.
With this win the Bulldogs will meet the Cougars of GV on Wednesday in what will prove to be a critical matchup.
“We have Golden Valley and Pitman, the rivals, coming up so it's tough. We are just taking it one game at a time right now,” Cornfoot said.
For the Bulldogs to continue their success they will have to play the way they have as of lately—unselfishly.
Leading the pack was Demsen McFaddin and Travis Cook, who were the only players in double figures with McFaddin scoring a team-high 14 points and Cook adding 10.
Just minutes into the first quarter the score was 5-4 in favor of Turlock, but a 27-8 run led to a 20-point lead by the halfway mark.
About a minute into the fourth the Bulldogs went on a scoring rampage, outscoring the Thunder 21-7 in only a nine-minute span.
“I think the mentality that we bring every game, we know we need to bring it and give it our best, push the ball and push the opposing team to their limits,” Cook said. “Everyone touching the ball really seems to help us out and with the way it is we will continue to play as hard as we can.”
Cook added five rebounds to his night while McFaddin also finished with three boards and two steals.
Devan Bains was third on the team in scoring with eight points and tacked on two assists, two steals and one rebound.
“Devan and Demsen sort of tweaked their ankles and I thought it was probably a good time to give the other guards a chance to play,” Cornfoot said. “I was really happy with how the bench played, they stepped in and moved the ball, and they didn’t force things and were still able to win at the boards.”
All but two players on Cornfoot’s 13-player roster scored and as a team the Bulldogs committed only 10 turnovers for the night.
“We seem to have a system that has been working for us,” Cornfoot added. “We see the little things we need to work on and we work on them and, hopefully, we keep improving every week because we have a goal to win league and make playoffs and in order to do that we need to get better.”
Turlock’s next game will be at home against the Cougars of GV at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.
