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Riverbank Lady Bruins Host TVL Teams
Romero
Senior Lady Bruin Melissa Romero (4) fights through the Hughson defense in the last varsity girls home basketball game of the season on Thursday, Feb. 12. Riverbank lost its first league game to the Huskies, 61-54. Ric McGinnis/The News

In a home basketball week with games on Feb. 10 and 12 that was almost as busy as Winter Homecoming was the week before, the Riverbank girls teams hosted a pair of evening contests as Trans-Valley League play winds down.

The varsity Lady Bruins came into the week undefeated 7-0 in league play but did not finish the week unscathed, losing Thursday night’s close game to Hughson’s Lady Huskies. A nail biter to the final buzzer, Riverbank ultimately came up short after trading the lead back and forth through the entire second half.

The varsity girls won by the slimmest of margins, 44-43, in the Tuesday, Feb. 10, game against Ripon’s Lady Indians, bringing their league record at the time to 8-0.

Against Hughson on Thursday, the game was tight from the beginning, with Riverbank ahead by just one, 14-13, at the end of the first quarter. By the half, the game was tied 29-29.

By the time the clock was down to two minutes in the fourth quarter on the clock, RHS was trailing by four points, 54-51. In the next 15 seconds, the score was 55-54, Huskies. With just a minute remaining, Hughson edged further ahead, 58-54.

At the end the Lady Bruins just couldn’t get the ball to fall, posting their only league defeat so far, 61-54, leaving an 8-1 TVL record at the close of the week’s action.

Also on Thursday this past week, the JV Lady Bruins lost their contest, 50-38, and the freshman girls team lost to Hughson, 40-27.

This week, Riverbank’s girls basketball program was scheduled to conclude its season away at Hilmar for three games against the Yellowjackets, after the News went to press. The varsity squad will likely get to host a first round playoff game, though their seed and opponent won’t be known until the conclusion of league play.

 

Boys Basketball

While the girls games were all at home last week, the boys basketball program was on the road for three straight games.

Riverbank’s varsity boys basketball team played at Ripon on Tuesday, Feb. 10, losing 53-51, to the Indians, just not quite able to get past the host team. On Wednesday, Feb. 11, also by a small margin, the Bruin boys were edged out by the Mariposa County Grizzlies in a non-league game, 65-63.

On Thursday, Feb. 12, Riverbank shook off the shadow of the pending Friday the 13th to come away with a win at Hughson, although close once again, 60-57. Riverbank is uncertain about postseason play at this point, the boys needing to win their final contest and see what happens with the rest of the TVL battles among the other teams.

Results for the JV and freshman contests were not available, though all three Bruin boys’ teams were slated to take the home court one final time.

The squads were to host the final games of the Trans-Valley League season, greeting the Hilmar Yellowjackets, on Tuesday, Feb. 17, after The News went to press.