The Turlock Christian High boys and girls basketball teams both faced Foresthill High in their respective first round Sac Joaquin Section D6 playoff games, coming away with mixed results. While the girls fell 28-47 in their matchup against Foresthill, the boys were able to prevail 75-61.
The boys game started off slow offensively, but was a fast-paced defensive game. The Eagles went into the half down by four, but picked things up when they came out of the half. TC picked things up defensively and barely let the Wildfires score in double digits in the third quarter.
“We settled in the second half with our defense shutting Foresthill down with 11 points in the third quarter,” said head coach Daniel Motz. “Once our defense picked up, our offense followed suit.”
The Eagles scored 45 points in the second half to open up the game and pull away with it. They are excited about the win, but know there is more work to be done.
“The team was ecstatic about their first playoff win as it was one of our goals heading into the season,” said Motz. “But the message the team left with was we are not done yet.”
The boys are currently the fifth seed in the CIF SJS Division 6 Section playoffs and will play the number one seed Valley Christian on Wednesday night in the semifinals.
The TC girls were never really able to get their offense going to overcome their deficit. They were down 15-5 after the first quarter, but were able to make the second quarter more competitive losing 11-9.
The Wildfires cranked up the defense in third again and the Eagles lost the quarter 13-4. TC never gave up, competing through and won the last quarter 10-8, but it wasn’t enough to come back and win.
“I am very thankful to have had the season we had,” said head coach Edwin Santiago. “We dealt with having only five players for games, having games postponed for different reasons such as COVID-19, or having a few players missing games because of other school activities or other AAU sports.”
The TC girls finished the season with an overall record of 10-11, and a 6-4 record in league play which was good enough for a fourth-place finish.
