Last weekend, Jan. 11 and 12, Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School hosted its annual middle school basketball tournament.
Teams from all over Merced County – 28 in all — participated in the tourney, including the three middle schools from Los Banos. Basketball teams from the tournament host O.L.F., Los Banos Junior High School and Creekside Junior High School each hit the court in the annual event.
O.L.F. and Los Banos Jr. High struggled in the tournament, with neither school able to secure a victory over the weekend.
However, Creekside Junior High School won both of its first two games. The Cougars defeated a very strong Mariposa Bear team, by just one point 36-35, behind the excellent play of Max Medeiros (18 points, 7 rebounds) and Giovanni Oates (14 points, 7 rebounds). Adrian DeLaCruz, Grayson Houtekamer and Enzo Climer rounded out the scoring for Creekside.
In their next game, the Cougars defeated the Livingston Wolves 32-28. Medeiros (13 points, 5 rebounds), Oates (10 points, 2 rebounds), Houtekamer (5 points, 6 rebounds) and DeLaCruz (4 points, 6 rebounds) led Creekside to the victory.
Things changed drastically in their third game as the Cougars ran into a buzz saw in the Weaver Wildcats. Creekside could not handle the pressure defense of the Wildcats, losing 55-14 to Weaver.
In their fourth and final game, the Cougars faced the Mariposa Bears in a rematch of their first-round game, but this time it was Mariposa claiming the victory by the score of 46 to 38.
Medeiros (14 points, 48 total for the tourney), Oates (11 points, 42 overall) and Houtekamer (13 points, 22 overall) and DeLaCruz (20 rebounds) paced the Cougar offense in the defeat.
