Central Valley’s varsity boys basketball team lost its homecoming game, 74-50, to Atwater Friday evening in Ceres.

The Hawks edged the Falcons 48-45 on Jan. 7.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well all night,” coach Mike Rodriguez said. “That trickled down to everything else—confidence, effort and defense. It’s disappointing. We could have put forth a better all-round effort.”

The Hawks dropped to 9-14 overall and fourth place in the Central California Conference standings (3-5).

The sixth-place Falcons improved to 9-14 and 2-6.

The top three teams advance to the postseason.

Central Valley and Buhach Colony (13-11, 4-4) are battling for the CCC’s third playoff spot.

“That loss hurt us big time as far as playoffs,” Rodriguez said. “We have to win out to at least tie for third. There would be a one-game playoff.”

Hawk Max Sanchez made six treys and poured in a team-high 22 points against the Falcons.

Tony Gaut and Daniel Villasenor both tallied seven points.

Kadin Manor, Grant Neang and Jonathan Vierra contributed five, four and two points, respectively.

Munraj Singh added one point.

Atwater outscored Central Valley 46-13 in the middle periods.

Central Valley edged Merced 64-62 on Jan. 23 in Ceres.

Manor, who totaled a team-high 22 points, scored the winning basket.

He broke a tie with a floater in the middle of the key with four seconds to play.

“Kadin got the opportunity to make a play and stepped up,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not surprised. He’s got a lot of confidence in his shooting ability.”

The Hawks had four players score in double figures versus the fourth-place Bears (9-15, 3-5).

Sanchez totaled 16 points.

Villasenor tallied 12 points.

Neang netted 10 points.

Central Valley buried 10 3-pointers, including four by Manor.

The Hawks outscored the Bears 14-4 in the first quarter.

Central Valley will play host to the last-place Patterson Tigers (4-19, 1-7) today at 7:15 p.m.