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Central Valley cagers defeat EU
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With its home court slippery from leaks caused by Friday's storm, the East Union High varsity boys basketball program went to rival Manteca's Winter Gymnasium to play host to Central Valley.

The Lancers didn't seem to need home-court advantage at the start.

East Union was up comfortably 30-19 at halftime after running its triangle offense to perfection in the second quarter. But costly turnovers, long scoring droughts and a 4-for-14 effort from the free-throw line helped the Hawks prevail in the end 58-55 in overtime.

"One of the things we talked about was play four quarters of basketball," said Hawks coach Darryl Dickson, whose team improved to 7-7 on the year, including 1-1 in the Valley Oak League standings. "We played two quarters tonight, and we got lucky. East Union is a good team, and they gave us a little bit of a break by making a couple mistakes here and there.

"But that fourth quarter, that's us at our best. If we can play like that for four quarters, we can be real tough."

The Lancers (1-1 VOL, 6-9 overall) mustered five points in the final quarter.

East Union sophomore guard Ricky Inderbitzin (11 points, 3 steals) sank a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 10 seconds left in regulation to tie it at 47-all. His bucket snapped East Union out of a scoring funk lasting 6 minutes, 20 seconds.

In the extra stanza, Central Valley guard Yama Noorzai scored seven of his game-high 19 points. He buried five total 3-pointers by game's end.

Teammates Sean McLeod and Trevor Mew also contributed during the course of the league game.

McLeod, a wide-bodied, 6-foot-3 center, finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Mew, Central Valley's leading scorer from a season ago, tallied eight points.

"We started moving the ball a little," Dickson said. "We worked to Sean, who's our go-to guy. And when they doubled Sean, that's when Yama kind of took over."

Post player Eugene Alston led East Union with 12 points and nine rebounds, with all of his scoring coming over the final two periods after a foul-plagued first half.

With Alston sitting out with two fouls in the second quarter, the Lancers went on a 22-8 run sparked by the play of Cory Hardisty (five points), Cody Lee (five rebounds, two blocks) and Nick Konradi (six points, 10 rebounds).

East Union point guard Garrett Fisher contributed eight points, seven assists and six rebounds. Sophomore Tyler Bylow chipped in nine points.

The Hawks outscored the Lancers 39-25 after intermission, including 28-17 over the third and fourth quarters.

"The problem for us in the second half was our offense," East Union coach Eric Simoni said. "We turned the ball over quite a bit, and the thing that stands out to me is our free throws. That's the difference of the game."

The Lancers dropped to 1-1 in the VOL, 6-9 overall.