Friday night’s Central California Conference showdown between Turlock and Pitman High’s varsity boys basketball proved to be another exciting contest in front of a packed house between both schools that came down to the final seconds of regulation.
Pitman capped off the first quarter with an 8-0 run and went up 12-3 before Turlock began to make their three-point shots and fighting their way back into the game.
Down seven points at halftime, Turlock was able to rebuttal in the second half with the help of Cameron Sherwood and Dallin Tilby, who combined for 36 points, and the Bulldogs ousted the Pride at home, 62-61, in their first meeting of the season.
“I think we just played as a team since coach has been preaching that,” said Sherwood, who scored a team-high 19 points. “When we come together, we gel well. We have had ups and downs but coach talks about how we have to get closer and come together, if we do that, nobody can stop us.”
“In the first quarter we started off well scoring-wise, since we haven’t started well in the first and then we let them come back towards the end of the first and the second it was pretty close,” said Pitman’s Dominick Von Waaden.
Von Waaden scored 14 points for the Pride but was held to just five in the second half.
“We played great defense. Sure, there were stretches when we have to work on it but other than that, it was a great game. They played great as well,” said Sherwood.
With the win Turlock goes to 2-4 in the CCC while Pitman’s record drops to 2-3.
Turlock has now won back-to-back games for the first time this season and goes to 6-13 overall. Pitman goes to 11-7 overall.
Turlock led 27-23 at the half.
The Pride fought back and took the lead in the third quarter at 40-33 with the help of Christian Williams, who scored seven in that quarter alone.
Turlock went on a 29-21 run in the fourth quarter with Sherwood adding 13 of his team-high points in the fourth alone.
“As a team in the locker room we are going with the mentality and mindset that we cannot lose another game and we have to think we are the best team on the court and nobody can beat us,” said Sherwood.
Tilby added 17 points for Turlock while Pitman’s Isaiah Marable finished with 10 points and Williams added a game-high 20 points.
“The crowd was great. We made three’s, and everyone was going crazy, it was a fun game to play in,” said Von Waaden. “We were hoping to win all of our league games since we lost a couple already, but we need to try and win the rest and keep fighting.”
“We turned the ball over a bunch of times in our losses,” said Sherwood. “We need to cut that out but other than that, offensively we have to play well and execute and get better every day and work hard in practice to make each other better.”
Turlock will travel to take on El Capitan at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Pitman will host Atwater in the next game at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday.
