Trailing the Kimball Jaguars 30-15 at hafltime in Tracy Wednesday, it appeared as if the Sonora Wildcat girls basketball team was looking at a long bus ride home.

Ashley Gamber scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Summerville Bears to a 51-26 rout of Amador on Tuesday in Tuolumne.

The Sonora Wildcat basketball team earned a hard-fought 66-56 overtime victory over the Kimball Jaguars on Tuesday at Bud Castle Gym.

The Columbia Claim Jumpers ended Saturday’s game on a 21-6 run to defeat Porterville 76-63 at Oak Pavilion. 

The Sonora Wildcats will compete in the Mother Lode League starting the 2014-15 school year under a proposed realignment plan released Tuesday by the Sac-Joaquin Section.

For three quarters it looked like the Sonora Wildcats might pull off an upset of the defending Valley Oak League-champion Sierra Timberwolves.

But in the fourth quarter, Sierra pulled away for a 63-45 victory and remain perfect in VOL play (3-0).

“We played three really good quarters,” said Wildcat head coach Rick Francis. “In that fourth quarter we just fell apart.”

Sonora’s Ben Bates (above, in white) dribbles past Merced’s Bradley Adamson. Amy Alonzo Rozak / The Union Democrat.

Columbia College’s annual Robert and Mary Fuchs Memorial Holiday Classic tipped off with a generous turnout of spectators at Oak Pavilion that had Claim Jumper boss Nathan Rien pleased.

“It was great to see everyone come out and support us,” said Rien.

January—Michael Oliveira of Hilmar set a new lake record at New Melones for brown trout with a 13-pound,  4-ouncer that was just 1-ounce heavier than the previous record by Garrett Anderson of Sonora in 2011.  

Waterfowl season closed with a pretty good influx of birds at the end.  

Sonora senior Cameron Armas led the Wildcats in goals scored this season and was a marked man by opponents all year. Armas is the Union Democrat’s All-Area boys’ soccer MVP. Maggie Beck / The Union Democrat

Armas’ superior skills on the field throughout the 2012 season translated to 16 total goals and two assists for the Cats, including eight scored during play in the grueling Valley Oak League.

He delivered a clutch game-tying goal that kept the Cats in contention late in a VOL matchup against Lathrop, which Sonora head coach Lloyd Longeway described as a prime example of what Armas has done for the team all season.

“He received the ball right at the top of the box about 18 yards from the goal,” recounted Longeway. “Cameron did a nice turn, spun and just took a shot. It wasn’t that he just blasted the ball or anything. He placed it right in the corner where the goalie didn’t have a chance. It was just such a beautiful goal.”