Manteca boys’ height, athleticism too much for Central Catholic in VOL basketball

Mike Wilson’s frustration was palpable, and his raspy voice bounced off the walls of tiny Winter Gymnasium.

The Central Catholic High School boys basketball coach paced the length of his bench, begging his team to …

“Move! Move!” he barked before burning a timeout less than three minutes into Friday night’s 68-55 loss to Manteca.

It was no use. Slow to start this match-up of Valley Oak League titans, Central Catholic (15-3, 4-2) quickly found itself in an 8-1 hole against the Buffaloes (16-3, 5-1), who never let their guests off the ropes.

Leery of Manteca’s height, Central Catholic searched for its spark from the perimeter, where it missed its final seven three-point attempts and finished 9 of 31. That end-of-game drought mirrored the Raiders’ rocky start. Central Catholic went nearly three minutes without a field goal and trailed 21-11 after one quarter.

“We wanted to make a stand on defense. That was our No. 1 thing coming into tonight. We wanted to alter shots,” said Manteca coach Brett Lewis, who notched his 100th career victory. “We knew they could shoot, and we knew we could protect the rim, but we wanted to protect the (three-point) line, too.

“That was a great start for us. We always like it when they call a timeout first. That’s the goal.”

The Buffaloes were simply too tall, too athletic and too balanced for the Raiders, who hoped their speed and fleet of guards would negate Manteca’s overwhelming height advantage.

Manteca led by as many as 18 as four players scored in double figures.

Dwight Young scored 12 of his team-high 19 points in the second half, connecting on three three-pointers, and twin towers Kenny Wooten and Anand Hundal continued their January tear. Four days after combining for 50 points and 35 rebounds in a double-overtime victory over Berkeley at the MaxPreps/De La Salle MLK Showcase, Wooten and Hundal scored 18 points apiece.

The 6-foot-10 Hundal added 11 rebounds and three blocked shots for the Buffaloes, who have won three straight games since suffering a 72-68 loss at VOL frontrunner Weston Ranch.

The 6-9 Wooten had eight rebounds and two blocks, including a length-of-the-court sprint to swat Central Catholic’s Jared Rice (seven points). The Nevada-bound forward atoned for his mistake on the play. It was his errant pass that sprung Rice on the fast break.

Manteca had six blocked shots.

“We got surprised a couple of times where Wooten came flying from behind to block shots,” Wilson said. “I don’t think they expected that. We have some kids that do a really nice job going to the basket, and tonight we were thinking too much and being too tentative. We were worried about the blocked shot or them changing the shot, which I used to love when we had our (tall) teams.”

Tydus Verhoeven rounded out Manteca’s balanced attack with 11 points. His two-handed flush in the first half capped a vintage Buffalo highlight. Roll tape: The dunk started on the defensive end, where Hundal batted away Rice’s floater. Frankie Lopez collected the rebound and pushed the ball up the floor. He slipped a pass to the trailer – the 6-8 Verhoeven – who finished at the rim to make it 25-13.

Moments later, Wooten flew through the lane for a slam. He tracked Hundal’s shot off the back of the rim, catching and finishing the rebound before Central Catholic’s posts left their feet.

To label his team as simply “tall” would be misleading, Lewis warned.

“We’re pretty athletic, too. No knock on them. They’re pretty dang athletic; they get up and down the floor, for sure,” he said. “But I don’t think we get a lot of credit for doing that, too. We like that kind of game.”

The Raiders simply couldn’t match the Buffaloes’ intensity off the opening tip. Wilson said his team – experienced and battle-tested – failed to execute the game plan, which called for the Raiders to take the fight to the Buffaloes’ big men.

Central Catholic was supposed to match Manteca’s physical play on the low block, utilize screens and run whenever possible.

Movement was key, and Wilson, his patience worn thin by halftime, didn’t see enough of that Friday evening.

“Everything we talked about and worked on was out the door. The intensity level was down, and they (the Buffaloes) were up as far as their emotion,” Wilson said. “Our emotion I think was maybe a little nerves, but that’s not an excuse.

“The whole idea was to be physical, don’t back away and don’t show fear, screen out and rebound with them, and do it the right way. They didn’t do it.”

Peter Hamilton scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half. Amrit Dhaliwal tried to shoot Central Catholic back into the game. He connected on three three-pointers in the second half and finished with 13 points. Cooper Wilson had 10 points and Joshua Hamilton nine for the Raiders, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.

“Believe me, people have jumped on us before,” coach Wilson said. “The disappointment came with the lack of intensity. You have to fight back, and I didn’t see it.”

It doesn’t get any easier for the Raiders, who travel to Weston Ranch (15-4, 6-0) on Monday to start the second half of league.

The Buffaloes host Lathrop, which rode a 51-point performance from Junior Ballard to a win over free-falling Sierra.

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Manteca boys’ height, athleticism too much for Central Catholic in VOL basketball."