Basketballs were dribbling off the hardwood on Friday on the campus of Turlock High School, a sight that boys varsity basketball coach Rick Fetter and his team aren’t taking for granted.
On Wednesday, the Bulldogs closed out their regular season with a third straight win, handling business against Modesto, 85-42. The Panthers finished the year winless against Central California Athletic League opponents. Minutes after the final buzzer of that contest, rival Pitman walked off the court at Gregori High after dropping their third game in a row, losing 66-58.
Turlock and Pitman each finished with 6-4 records in the CCAL, but the Bulldogs are the ones granted third place and awarded an automatic bid to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs as they hold a tiebreaker after having beat the Pride in their two meetings this year.
The Bulldogs were led by senior Ross Widemon’s 33 points. It was his second 30-point performance and tenth 20-point outing of the season. Fellow senior Dutch Lawrence pitched in 12, while sophomore Josiah Simmons scored eight.
“Just super proud of these kids,” said Fetter, whose team’s playoff chances seemed bleak midway through conference play after being swept by eventual CCAL co-champions Enochs and Gregori.
The Jaguars secured their share of the title with their win on Wednesday, improving their record to 8-2. Meanwhile, Pitman finished in fourth place, with their only chance at playing in the postseason coming if MaxPreps.com ranks them in the top 15 of their end-of-season D-1 rankings, where they’d likely participate in a play-in game. The public won’t know the Pride’s fate until 1:30 p.m. Saturday, when SJS assistant commissioner Will DeBoard hosts the 2025 Boys and Girls Basketball Selection Show, live on the NFHS Network.
Pitman, in control of their own destiny, certainly didn’t make things easy for Gregori early on, with juniors Cole Martin, Abhiraj Cheema and Isaac Dorsey, senior Avery Sanchez, and freshman brother Ty Sanchez combining for eight 3-pointers in the first half. Ty Sanchez, Cheema and Martin each drained two.
After being held scoreless in the fourth quarter of the Pride’s 55-52 loss to Turlock on Monday, Martin came out of the gates firing with eight points on three-for-four shooting through the first four minutes of play.
“I’ll tell you what, (Pitman) definitely did not look desperate. They made eight 3-pointers in the first half, and that’s incredible for high school teams,” said Gregori head coach Ernesto Ruiz. “They weren’t nervous, they were bringing their A-game, and I told the guys, ‘This is what a championship game looks like.’”
The Pride, who won 46-44 in their first clash with the Jaguars, held a 35-33 lead heading into the half. But the combination of Gregori’s high-paced play and an ill-timed shooting struggle from the Pride in the second half flipped the script. Juniors Mason Marsden and Jayson Powers helped spread the floor with 16 points each. Marsden drilled six of 11 attempts from the field, including three second-half 3-pointers, while Powers was fed a handful of backdoor cuts for 12 points in the paint.
The Jaguars ended the third quarter on a 7-2 run and with a 53-46 lead. In the fourth, each team hit four shots from the field, but two were from beyond the arc for the Jaguars, and they penetrated the paint to earn three trips to the free-throw line. The Pride missed nine shots down the stretch.
“Our strategy this time was to speed up the game,” Ruiz said. “They played at their pace last game and we tried to play at their pace, and it didn’t work. This time, we tried to press them and tried to force them to take shots early.”
With just under a minute left on the clock and the score 66-55, Pitman head coach Harvey Marable pulled his starters. Most walked off the court with tears in their eyes, unsure if they’d be able to share the high school stage together ever again.
“That’s an incredible team,” Ruiz said of Pitman. “They’re so strong, they’re really great defensively, and today, we accomplished our game plan a little bit better.”
Saturday’s selection show can be viewed at www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/cifsjs/evt2b5ee1b01b.
