SALINAS VALLEY — King City High varsity girls’ basketball team lost 60-27 at home to the Watsonville Wildcatz on Nov. 26.
Watsonville held a 28-16 halftime lead then pulled away in the third quarter, outscoring King City 16-6.
Kendyl Burpo led the Lady Mustangs with eight points, while Crystal Paramo and Mikayla McLane scored five points apiece. Amity Hearne had a team-high 14 rebounds.
“Watsonville is a good team and they were a tough team to start the season against,” said first-year Mustangs head coach Angel Trujillo. “We just need to learn how to play together on the court.”
King City played at Soledad High on Monday night and will be participating the rest of the week at the Coach Wilson Memorial Tournament at Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach.
Soledad will join King City at the tournament in Pebble Beach this week, while on Wednesday, Greenfield hosts the Rancho San Juan Trailblazers and Gonzales takes on Harbor at the Roger Fernando Gym.
Boys’ Basketball
The Soledad High boys played at the Chase Center in San Francisco, the home of the Golden State Warriors, on Nov. 25 and defeated the Gilroy Mustangs, 50-30.
Pablo Morales led the Aztecs with 16 points and Bryan Villegas just missed double figures in scoring with nine points. The top rebounders for Soledad were Calvin DeShazo with seven and Anikan Tavarez with five.
“Playing at Chase Center was a lot of fun and a great experience for the team,” said Soledad head coach Nick Twitchell. “We just had to sell a certain amount of tickets to play there and so did Gilroy. We also had fun taking pictures on the court and around the venue.”
On Saturday, the Aztecs fell to 1-1 in the pre-season as they lost 52-50 to the Live Oak Acorns in the Soledad gym.
“It was a game that just went back and forth and we had our chances to win at the end,” Twitchell said. “Pablo Morales scored 22 points and his cousin Pedro Morales had nine points. Anikan Tavarez and Anthony Medina had 10 rebounds apiece.”
Soledad will say good-bye to mainland for a week as they fly to Hawaii to participate in the Moanalua Basketball Tournament. The tournament starts Thursday and continues through Saturday in Honolulu.
In other games last week, King City lost its pre-season opener on Nov. 25 to the Marina Mariners. The Mustangs have a busy week as they hosted Everett Alvarez on Tuesday night, hosts Pajaro Valley on Wednesday and competes against Paso Robles on Friday night.
Gonzales High began the pre-season schedule with a 75-29 victory at home against Ceiba College Prep and will host the Harbor Pirates on Thursday night. Greenfield High beat Templeton 43-41 on Saturday and will be playing at the Alisal Jose Solis/Vantory Miles Invitational the rest of this week.
