Summerville senior Ashley Gamber kept the Central Catholic girls’ hoopsters on edge with her team-high 27 points, but the Bears were unable to close the gap on the Raiders late in the fourth quarter.

Summerville (3-9) knew it had a tough challenge in the Raiders, who had only one loss on the season going into Thursday night’s game at the Modesto private school.

For Central Catholic head football coach Roger Canepa, winning the CIF State Division IV Championship on Dec. 14 is a classic tale of the hometown boy makes good.

Canepa was born and raised in Sonora. He currently lives off Racetrack Road and commutes to the Modesto private school each day. And for nearly 20 years, he guided area high school teams to glory with coaching stints at Sonora and Calaveras.

“They’re excited,” Canepa said of the community. “I have a lot of friends up here. We had about 20 or 30 people from Sonora and Calaveras at the game. It’s just nice to have good friends and people rooting for me.”

Nick Elliot scored 14 points and Kyle Funk added 13 to help the Calaveras Redskins junior varsity hoopsters hand the Sonora Wildcats their first loss of the season after 10 straight wins.

The Redskins rallied from a 26-22 halftime deficit.

The Calaveras Redskin girls’ varsity basketball team only allowed the Sonora Wildcats one basket during overtime to hold on for a 51-46 preseason win at home Tuesday night.

With around four minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Redskins leading 40-34, Wildcat senior Jessie Fong came up with two steals on back-to-back Calaveras possessions that helped Sonora close the gap to within two points.

“Jessie’s one of our best defenders and she did a great job tonight,” said Sonora head coach Amy Santos. “She’s got a great nose for the ball and got those key steals when we needed them.”

About two minutes later, Wildcat senior Bryanna Owens dished the ball inside to Shea Stead who put it in with a layup to tie the game 40-40.

Bear senior Krysta Calkins scored a game-high 22 points in the Summerville girl hoopsters’ 57-33 rout of the Delhi Hawks on Tuesday night.

The Bears built a 10-8 first-quarter lead on the Hawks and extended it to 26-15 at halftime.

Summerville outscored Delhi 21-3 in the third to give the Bears a 19-point advantage that helped them clinch their third victory of the 2012-13 season on the road.

“There was a lot of stuff going on early and we had to settle down,” said Summerville head coach Dave Woods. “We outscored them pretty good in the third quarter once we calmed down. (Delhi) tries to fast break all the time and get you in a frenzied pace.”

Sonora guard Danny Matranga dribbles upcourt on Tuesday with Calaveras’ Kellen Hodgson defending. Matranga was clutch down the stretch, scoring seven out of the Wildcats’ final 12 points. Maggie Beck / Union Democrat.

Matranga scored seven of Sonora’s final 12 points to help lead the Wildcats to a 51-43 hoops victory over the Calaveras Redskins Tuesday night at Bud Castle Gym.

With 2:40 left in the game and the score tied at 39, Matranga canned a 3-pointer to put the Cats in front for good, 42-39.

The Columbia Claim Jumpers have waived all admission fees to this season’s non-tournament home basketball games in an effort to increase local interest and give back to the community that supports them.

Samantha Smith (1588) runs at the Junior Olympics in New Mexico on Dec. 8. She finished the 5K event 11th place out of 55 in a time of 20:43.59. Courtesy photo.

Smith competed with the Buffalo Babes team, a division of the Buffalo Chips running club, based out of the Sacramento area. She finished the 5K event in 20:43.59, which helped her team to a second-place finish. 

She is one of 10 runners from the Buffalo Babes team to earn All-American status.

In my early years of waterfowl hunting, very few of the hunters in the old Apple City Club, which we started in 1947, owned a dog. 

In those days, being young and healthy, we were content to chase down our own birds. 

My first experience of hunting with a partner who owned a dog was back in the 1980s with the late Dick Brown, formerly of Mi-Wuk Village.

Summerville’s Colton Ebbers (54, above) spins and cans a free-throw line jumper with Sonora’s Kyle Wolfe (5, left) and Cody Hansten (22) defending on Tuesday in Tuolumne. Ebbers finished the night with 12 points. Amy Alonzo Rozak / Union Democrat.

With less than 10 seconds remaining, Sonora took the lead 50-48 when Wildcat forward Ben Bates scored off a strong inside move, prompting Bears head coach Ben Watson to call a timeout.

Foster then buried the game-saver off a pass from guard Kyle McLaurin.