Turlock High had a rough outing against Golden Valley High Friday night. The Bulldogs (3-1 CCC) struggled to hit their stride as the Cougars (3-1 CCC) handed them their first league loss by a score of 65-38.

“Golden Valley is better than what they’ve been playing the last few games,” Turlock’s head coach Doug Cornfoot said. “We were hoping they would have a slump with their three-point shooting for one more game.”

That didn’t happen. The Cougars hit eight three point shots before the game was over, half of which came off the hands of sophomore Evan Stillahn who finished with 16 total points. Turlock took the lead once early in the game, but with 2:01 left in the first quarter Golden Valley retook the lead and never let go.

The Cougars effectively took Turlock’s best player, Alek Carlson, out of the equation with double teams and stiff defense. To make matters worse, the Bulldogs were inaccurate with their shooting and unable to play inside.

“We had open looks; we didn’t knock down the big shots,” Cornfoot said. “But we didn’t want to shoot shots outside; we wanted to get shots in the paint.”

Golden Valley’s precision with its shots sparked a high level of team energy for the Cougars, who seemed right at home in Bulldog Arena. The Bulldogs suffered from the lack of momentum, and even though they managed to pull within 10 points of Golden Valley halfway through the fourth quarter they couldn’t orchestrate a comeback run.

Next up for Turlock is rival Pitman High on Wednesday. The two teams met earlier in the season during the Frank Godinez tournament where Pitman beat Turlock by a point.

To contact Frankie Tovar, e-mail ftovar@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2041.