Still perfect: Escalon moves to 16-0 on Sammy Lang game winner in TVL opener
When Escalon and Riverbank match up, both sides know to expect a battle. Six of the past nine contests between the Cougars and Bruins have been decided by five points or less and it seems like every game is big.
Last season, Riverbank went 3-0, winning by two points on a buzzer beater in Escalon then twice by double figures. The Bruins won at home last season in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV semifinals.
They matched up for the first time this season Thursday night and once again, it was a highly anticipated matchup.
“This is a great venue and Riverbank has terrific fan support,” Escalon coach Joe Dalpogetti said. “The last couple times we played here, it’s been the loudest girls basketball games that I’ve ever really been a part of at any level.”
It lived up to the hype and then some. Escalon came out with strong first and third quarters and Riverbank answered in the second and fourth. The Cougars, however, emerged victorious. Senior guard Sammy Lang was the difference for Escalon, driving coast-to-coast with seconds left in the game for a game-winning lay up to give Escalon its first TVL win this season.
“I knew it was gonna be a challenge and I definitely knew it was gonna be loud,” Lang said. “It’s very intense and you’re nervous and you don’t want to do anything wrong. You just have to make sure you have confidence.”
The matchup between Trans Valley League rivals was extra special as the Cougars were looking to defend one of the section’s longest win streaks, entering the contest a perfect 15-0 this season.
“We don’t really talk about it, we never really address it,” Dalpogetti said. “We just kind of take it day by day.”
Escalon punched first, going ahead 17-9 in the first quarter but Riverbank stormed back with a 20-point second frame. It was close the rest of the way with no team leading by more than seven points for the rest of the contest.
“We’re a very good team. I think we play really well together and we all like each other,” said Lang, who scored the Cougars’ final four points. “There’s no tension between each other. We trust each other and that’s a big thing for us. We trust each other to take the last winning shot.”
A trio of stars
The Cougars extended their outstanding win streak to 16 games by the skin of their teeth.
All but four wins have come without senior guard Macie Vickers, a volleyball-basketball-softball three-sport athlete who signed to play softball at the University of Nebraska. Vickers is a four-year varsity player who was named TVL MVP as a sophomore and earned First Team All-League honors last season.
Dalpogetti says she is nursing “a couple of nagging injuries” and could return at some point this season.
“We don’t want to risk anything, so we’re just trying to play it safe,” Dalpogetti said.
The Cougars also have a new face on the varsity program in freshman Arianna Velasco. As one of the team’s primary ball handlers, she diced through the Riverbank press multiple times, getting into the paint and correctly deciding when to pull up for a floater or drop the ball off to a post player around a helping Bruins defender. She finished Thursday’s contest with nine points.
“She’s incredibly fast, she’s quick, and also has great instincts. She might only be a freshman but she’s definitely playing like a seasoned veteran,” Dalpogetti said. “She didn’t have the greatest first half tonight and I let her know because I do coach my kids hard and I thought she had a terrific second half.”
Even with about a million things going through his mind in the game’s final seconds, Dalpogetti reverted to what has worked for the past two years: trust Sammy Lang.
The senior, sporting the bright pink Kobe Bryant Nike signature shoes that she received as a gift from her parents, grabbed a rebound with under 20 seconds left in the game and the Cougars trailing by a point. She sliced through helpless Riverbank defenders to the right side of the rim and put in a fading layup to give the Cougars a 52-51 lead with seven seconds left. The layup proved to be the game winner as Riverbank could not find the bottom of the net on its next possession.
“Sammy is just such an instinctual player. She does several things throughout the game that I can never coach and teach her to do,” Dalpogetti said of the senior guard and team’s leading scorer who finished with 25 points. “When she pushed the ball down on the floor to get that game winning bucket, I thought about calling a timeout. … But I’m like no, I trust Sammy. And she went and she got the layup off the glass on the right side.”
No rest in the TVL
Chancis Gamez fought through leg cramps most of the fourth quarter to score a team high 12 points for Riverbank. Taylor Macias took a hard fall into the bleachers in the game’s opening seconds but battled to score nine. Avah Luu also added nine. Post player Rayne Tago battled with foul trouble all night but scored 10 points with eight coming in the fourth quarter.
When Macias, Gamez and Tago are all on the floor together, Riverbank coach Janelle Luu believes the Bruins can compete with anyone.
“Too many fouls, too many fouls,” she said of her team’s performance. “But everybody in this whole gym could see that they had heart which is what I’m proud of. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t fall our way and that’s what happened, the basketball gods are very cruel tonight … but that’s why we love playing for the heart for these close games.”
Escalon can’t ride this high for too long and Riverbank needs to bounce back quickly because the heavies of the TVL are coming.
The Cougars take on Ripon Christian and Ripon Jan. 9 and 11, respectively. Riverbank plays Ripon Jan. 9 and defending TVL co-champion Hughson Jan 11. Last season, the Bruins’ only loss in league play was to Hughson as they earned the other co-champion title.
“I always tell the girls you don’t get night’s off in the TVL, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing or what the record is coming in,” Dalpogetti said. “All the coaches know each other so well. We know what they’re going to run, how they’re going to play. There’s really no secrets.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2024 at 10:04 AM.
