Ceres High School’s varsity boys basketball team beat Los Banos and lost to Patterson in Western Athletic Conference play last week.

The Bulldogs improved to 10-9 overall and 2-3 in league.

“It was pretty important to get a split,” Ceres High head coach Julio Marquez said. “If we lose both, we would have dropped out of contention. We want to be a playoff team.”

Ceres High rallied for a 46-44 win against Los Banos on Friday.

Down 34-31, Ceres High outscored Los Banos 15-10 in the final period to secure the victory.

“We were trailing the whole game until the fourth quarter,” Marquez said. “We started pressuring them. We created our offense off our defense.”

Harman Chung led the Bulldogs with 14 points, 10 rebounds and two steals.

Abel Reyes collected seven points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals.

Dylan Canatsy tallied seven points and one rebound.

Nick Burt contributed six points and two rebounds.

Austin Stiles had five points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal.

Jimmy Bates chipped in with three points, three rebounds and four assists.

Ceres High fell behind 17-13 in the opening half.

Visiting Ceres High lost to former Bulldog head coach Brian de la Porte and Patterson 51-44 on Wednesday.

Ceres High compiled an 0-2 record against Patterson in WAC play this year. The Bulldogs edged Tigers 54-53 for fifth place at Turlock’s 37th Annual Frank Godinez Tournament.

“Losing to Patterson is tough,” Marquez said. “You can’t dwell on it. If we win tomorrow, it will help us a lot. If not, it’s going to be difficult (to make playoffs). We’ll need other teams to lose.”

Chung had 11 points, four rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block.

Canatsy had nine points, four rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block.

Reyes had seven points, four assists and two steals.

Patterson outscored Ceres High 29-20 in the middle periods.

The Bulldogs faced an eight-point deficit at the end of the third quarter.

Ceres High shot just 35 percent (18 of 52) from the field during the game.

“We hit a wall in the fourth quarter,” Marquez said. “They applied pressure on us and we didn’t handle the ball well. We got our shot attempts. We just didn’t knock them down. We got tired.”

Ceres High will play at crosstown-rival Central Valley on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

The Hawks defeated the Bulldogs 66-54 at Phil de la Porte Gymnasium on Jan. 10.