With Christmas and the new year right around the corner, the tournament schedule is moving along, with local prep programs recently wrapping up their non-conference slates and others preparing for final tune-ups ahead of league play.
How Pride fare heading into Holiday Classic
It’s been an up-and-down season for the Pitman High’s girls basketball program thus far, going 3-8 in non-conference action. This week, the Pride will look for more success in the comforts of their own gymnasium during the 12th annual Pitman Holiday Classic.
With Christmas landing on Thursday, this year’s tournament will take place on Friday through Saturday and wrap up on Monday.
Competing alongside the Pride this year are Hughson, Riverbank, Merced, Davis (Modesto), Mountain House, Argonaut (Jackson) and Mount Diablo (Concord).
Friday action tips off at 3 p.m. when Hughson takes on Merced. Riverbank and Mount Diablo will then take the court at 4:30 p.m., with Davis and Mountain House playing immediately after at 6 p.m. The night ends with Pitman taking on Argonaut at 7:30 p.m.
The Pride’s three wins came against Livingston on Dec. 4 (68-45), McNair on Dec. 11 (46-45) and Stagg on Dec. 13 (51-34).
Senior point guard Dailynn Greener has led the Pride with 119 total points and 14.9 points per game, while also compiling a team-high 21 steals. Junior forward Clarissa Vallejo has been a force down low with 41 rebounds. Vallejo and senior Ashli Mendoza have crashed the boards by averaging 5.1 and 5.0 rebounds per game.
Turlock teams at prestigious tournaments
The boys and girls basketball teams of Turlock High will be in action later this week in some of the toughest tournaments the region has to offer.
Following their fourth-place finish at last week’s Frank Godinez Tournament, the Bulldog boys split their next two non-conference matchups between Atwater (52-46 loss) and Central Valley (58-55 win) to improve to 5-4 overall. Now, they turn their attention to the 25th annual Modesto Christian Holiday Hoops Classic from Dec. 26-30. The ‘Dogs begin their run Friday when they take on Liberty of Brentwood at 10 a.m.
The Bulldogs won one of four games at last year’s event.
For the second straight year, Turlock’s girls will head to Livermore for the West Coast Jamboree.
Despite a 3-11 record to start the season, the Bulldogs will head into the prestigious event coming off a 39-31 victor over Oakdale on Monday. Other wins this season came against Central Valley of Ceres on Dec. 12 (31-21) and Destiny Christian Academy on Nov. 29 (55-49).
After going winless in three games at last year’s Jamboree, the Bulldogs hope to find the win column to continue improving from last season’s 2-26 overall record.
‘Jackets win consolation bracket of Christmas Classic
After losing an overtime thriller to Ceres on Thursday night in the opening day of the Hilmar Christmas Classic, the Yellowjackets boys basketball team ran the table over the following two days to secure the consolation title of their home tournament.
The ‘Jackets had three players in double figures against Ceres, led by senior Aaron Solorio’s 21, but ultimately could not overcome 22 turnovers. The turnovers were limited to just 10 on Friday as Hilmar cruised to a 57-35 victory over Summerville, a game in which Solorio poured in another 16 points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds and two blocks. Junior Riley Quintero followed up his 16-point performance against the Bulldogs with 12 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals in the effort against the Bears.
In the tournament finale against Lathrop on Saturday, more double-digit scoring performances were put in, again led by Solorio’s 15 and followed closely by Quintero’s 12 and senior Xavier Silveira’s 14.
Hilmar, now 10-5, will not be in action until the new year, when they open the Trans-Valley League slate at home against Ripon Christian (5-5) on Jan. 7.
Cervantes, Coyotes stay hot
After dropping four of their first five games of the 2025-26 campaign, the Denair boys basketball team has won five of their last seven, while collecting some hardware along the way.
From Dec. 11-13, the Coyotes participated (dominated may be a better term) at the fourth annual Waterford Winter Classic. Their title run began by outscoring Summerville and Vanguard College Prep by a combined score of 134-73. In the 64-49 victory over Summerville, reigning Southern Athletic League Most Valuable Player Koby Cervantes led all scorers with 30 points and 10 rebounds.
The next day featured a 70-24 throttling of Vanguard in which Cervantes again stuffed the stat sheet with 18 points and 17 rebounds. The senior led the way again in the title game against Riverbank, putting up another 30 points and 17 rebounds to lift the Coyotes to a 64-61 win.
The 6-foot-5, 190-pounder has nabbed a double-double in each of the 10 games he has appeared in for the 6-6 Coyotes, averaging a whopping 26.7 points and 15.3 rebounds per game. His 10 double-doubles ranks first in the Sac-Joaquin Section, sixth in the state and 25th nationwide. His scoring and rebound marks each rank in the top 10 in California.
Cervantes, third-year head coach Kevin Storms and the Coyotes will next take the court in Gustine on Jan. 2 to ring in the new year as well as Southern League play.
The Coyotes will look to build on last year’s run where they finished runner-up to undefeated Stone Ridge Christian and 8-4 and 15-12 overall, earning their first postseason appearance since the memorable 2021-22 season under head coach RJ Henderson that saw them life a Sac-Joaquin Section blue banner and advance to the second round of the CIF State Tournament.
Hughson boys continue strong preseason
Speaking of RJ Henderson, the legendary coach is back in the saddle in nearby Hughson. Henderson came out of retirement last season, and led the Huskies to a 10-18 overall record.
Heading into this week, the Huskies sport a 6-4 record, with notable wins against strong local programs like Central Valley (50-49 on Dec. 16), Riverbank (68-46 on Dec. 6), Ceres (55-46 on Nov. 25).
While many programs will take the week of Christmas and New Year’s off, Henderson will have his boys take a trip to the Inland Empire for the prestigious Desert Holiday Classic in Palm Springs, Dec. 26-30. The Huskies will begin 2026 with a non-conference home game against Bret Harte on Jan. 5 before their TVL run tips off Jan. 7 at Ripon.
TC continue non-conference slate
The Turlock Christian boys will also squeeze in some competition before the ball drops next week, set to host Riverbank on Dec. 29.
With a 6-6 record to start the season, the Eagles are trying to improve on a 2024-25 campaign where they went 7-18 overall.
The Eagles competed at the Delhi Winter Classic over the weekend, going 2-3 with close losses to Waterford (54-49) and Delhi (54-42) while dominating Friday against Vanguard College Prep (72-33) and pulling out a thrilling 54-51 win over Pacheco in Saturday’s finale, in which senior Michael Miller exploded for 33 points.
TC’s long non-conference schedule will continue with four games through the first week of January. Central California Athletic Alliance play will get underway on Jan. 13 when the Eagles travel to Stockton to take on Ben Holt College Prep Academy.
Pitman boys struggling out of the gate
The start of the 2025-26 season has been one of major adjustments for the Pitman boys program after losing some of their top scorers from the previous three years.
Not only did the Pride lose all-time leading scorer Avery Sanchez and key role players Carmelo Hernandez and Kaulin Davoud to graduation, but they took an additional hit in the offseason as star forward Cole Martin transferred to regional powerhouse Modesto Christian for his senior season.
With a 2-8 record heading into a Tuesday night contest in Elk Grove against Cosumnes Oaks, the Pride have dropped a handful of heartbreakers, most notably to Patterson on Dec. 16 (47-45), Sierra of Manteca on Dec. 9 (61-57), Sonora on Dec. 20 (47-39) and Los Banos on Nov. 29 (59-49).
The lone wins for Pitman came against Antioch on Dec. 6 (59-43) and Chavez of Stockton in the season opener on Nov. 21 (45-37).
The Pride will start 2026 with a home game against Central Catholic on Jan. 3 before another trio of non-conference games, with the CCAL season starting Jan. 14 at Modesto High.
