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CHS frosh remain in hunt for WAC crown
Dawgs improve to 6-1 in league play
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Bulldog Monte Wallace looks to pass to a teammate versus the Gauchos on Wednesday in Ceres. - photo by DALE BUTLER/The Courier

Ceres High School's freshman boys basketball team remained in the hunt for the Western Athletic Conference title this past week.

The second-place Bulldogs collected victories against Livingston and El Capitan.

"We're playing our best basketball right now," Ceres High head coach Tracy Bull said. "I think we're the best team in the WAC. We probably should be undefeated. We haven't been tested since the first El Capitan game."

The Bulldogs improved to 16-3 overall and 6-1 in the WAC standings.

"We got 13 players on the team," Bull said. "Every kid has gotten better. I feel pretty good where we're at right now. We're going to run the table."

Ceres High eased past Livingston 67-53 on Friday at Phil de la Porte Gymnasium.
Bulldog center Cristian Garcia totaled a game-high 30 points.

Inder Sandhu, Adrian Magdaleno and Austin Schmidt added 14, 10 and five points, respectively.

Daniel Medina, Jesus Mejia, Cristian Palafox and Gurraj Purewal all contributed two points.

The Bulldogs shot 79 percent (27 of 34) from 2-point range, 40 percent (2 of 5) from 3-point range and 41 percent (7 of 17) from the foul line.

Ceres High had a 40-20 scoring advantage in the middle periods.

Both teams tallied 15 points in the first quarter.

"We scored at will off their press," Bull said. "It was clearly not working for them. It was layup after layup for us."

Ceres High battled back for a 44-32 win over visiting El Capitan on Wednesday.

The Gauchos edged the Bulldogs 49-44 in Merced earlier this season.

"We were pretty confident going into that game," Bull said. "We knew what we did wrong the first time and fixed it. We made some adjustments. We dominated the game."

Garcia led the way with 18 points.

Sandhu scored 14.

Magdaleno, Purewal and Schmidt finished with four points each.

Ceres High trailed 12-5 at the end of the first quarter. The Bulldogs outscored the Gauchos 39-20 the rest of the way.

Ceres High will face first-place Patterson (7-0) on the road next Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.

"We feel confident going over there," Bull said. "If we play to our ability, we'll win."