The Brett Lee gym at Pacheco High School was full of enthusiastic and loud basketball fans, Wednesday as the Panthers played host to their cross-town rivals, the Los Banos Tigers, 15-2 overall, 6-0 Western Athletic Conference.
The Tigers entered the game undefeated in the conference and hoped to continue their winning streak against Pacheco 2-4 WAC. The two teams battled back and forth in the first half of play, with Los Banos holding a slim two-point lead, 18-16 at halftime.
But in the third quarter, the Tigers showed their dominance, outscoring the Panthers 15 to 3 to take a 33-19 lead at the end of three periods of play. Kayson Welch (16 points), Caleb Robertson (9 points), and Ayden Barcellos (7 points) led the Los Banos offense, while Yahir Zuniga (9 rebounds, six takeaways) paced the Tiger defense.
The Tigers closed out the win in the fourth period as David Armendarez hit a buzzer-beating 3-point shot as Los Banos outscored Pacheco 13 to 9 and sealed the 46-28 victory. Evan Rebosa and Zuniga added five points each to the Tiger offense, while defensively, Welch and Barcellos each hauled down nine rebounds for the winning Tigers.
In the JV contest, the Young Tigers won their third consecutive conference game, defeating the Panthers 44-36. The dynamic duo of Eric Ramos (24 points) and Byron Zuniga (15 points) accounted for 39 of the Tiger’s 44 total points. Niko Lomeli had an excellent game for Pacheco, scoring 19 points in the loss.
The Tiger Freshman team made it a clean sweep with their 30-25 victory over the Panthers. Josh Gargano and Christian Chavez paced the victory for Los Banos.
