Olivia Fiveash finished with a team-high 14 points, Giana Martella added 10 and Kelli Foster scored another 10 as the Hughson Huskies brushed off their previous loss and toppled the Hilmar Yellowjackets in their first matchup of the year from home, 61-29 on Tuesday night.
“So, for us, we just had that tough loss to Livingston, one we thought we should have won that game and the key was to come in and play our style of basketball, and we did that for two quarters and the result shows,” said Hughson head coach Tim May.
With the win, Hughson has now won five of the last six games and improved to 12-5 and 2-1 in the Trans-Valley League.
Hilmar drops their sixth consecutive game and go to 2-13 on the year and 0-3 in league.
“Hughson is a tough team and we knew coming in that they are good shooters and have good post players,” said Hilmar head coach Shelbi Peterson. “So, we haven’t had the best luck, but we always play hard and the girls played three tough quarters and I was impressed and they were beating the press, but that last quarter it was hard to keep up with them.”
The game looked fairly even in the first two quarters. By halftime, Hughson led 25-17.
Then in the third, the game began to become a tug and pull type of contest.
Back and forth they went as Hilmar fought back and cut the lead to within six points in the third quarter, but Hughson found a way to respond every time.
Eventually, Hughson took a 37-27 lead into the fourth and final quarter before the Huskies offense went off.
“Well we are young, and we have a lot of juniors and sophomores, and we are still learning how to play with each other, but from the beginning, we have developed a lot,” said Peterson. “I want them to get to know the man, but we are playing the 2-3, but I thought they did good tonight in the first three quarters.”
With the help of Fiveash, Martella, Foster, Kali Gose and Madi Coelho, the Huskies went on a 24-2 run in the final eight minutes of action to secure the win.
Coelho added eight points for the night while all but three players from Hughson scored.
“I like their mental toughness this year, and I like other things that they are doing. We got a little sloppy, but we didn’t panic,” said May. “That was the whole talk, going into the week is knowing what our record is and what their record is, but we have to play Husky basketball, because we have a bigger picture and are shooting for something greater, hopefully we can get there.”
The goal is to possibly compete for the TVL title and coach May is confident in his group.
“We don’t talk about it too much since we like to take it one game at a time, but in the back of our minds we know we are talented enough and good enough to compete for that TVL title,” said May. “As much as we would like to say we are not thinking about it, we are just trying to stay focused and we just talked about coming to work tomorrow and getting ready for Riverbank. We are deep. I know our shooting percentage is not where we would like it to be, but we have three or four three-point shooters that at any time can heat up.”
Hughson’s next game will be at Riverbank at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The next game for Hilmar will be a home league game against Ripon Christian at 7 p.m. Tuesday.