Central Valley High School's junior-varsity boys basketball squad dominated visiting Ceres High early and escaped with a 51-45 victory last Friday.

"I knew it was going to be a close game," Hawks head coach Nimrat Chahal said. "They have a good team."

Central Valley improved to 9-8 overall and 3-2 in the WAC.

Ceres High dropped to 9-8 and 2-3.

Hawk Antonio Ramirez tallied a team-high 14 points.

Miguel Jimenez collected nine points.

Andres Rojo, Dakota Scroggins and David Serrano all contributed six points.

Oscar Lopez, Estevan Barragan and Daniel Salazar chipped in with five, three and two points, respectively.

Bulldog Inder Sandhu tallied 14 of his game-high 16 points in the second half.

Gurraj Purewal, Donnavin Koeurn, Austin Schmidt, Adrian Magdaleno and Cristian Palafox had 11, seven, five, four and two points, respectively.

The Hawks managed to build a 26-13 lead in the opening half despite playing shorthanded.

Serrano, Central Valley's center, picked up two fouls and was relegated to the bench for the entire second quarter.

"Everybody played well," Chahal said. "Our goal was to lock down Inder, their best player. We limited him to two points in the first half."

The Bulldogs outscored the Hawks 32-25 during the second half.

Ceres High trailed 41-31 at the end of the third quarter.

"I knew they'd make a run," Chahal said. "They have a good team."

Schmidt cut the deficit to 45-43 with 4:40 to play when he buried a 3-pointer from the right wing.

The two teams combined to score just eight points the rest of the way, including six by Central Valley. Rojo made a layup and one of two free throws. Jimenez converted a pair of foul shots. Serrano added one point.

"We had balanced scoring," Chahal said. "They couldn't stop all of us. That's why we won. We're getting more confident. I really believe we can win league."