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The Sonora Wildcat basketball team earned a hard-fought 66-56 overtime victory over the Kimball Jaguars on Tuesday at Bud Castle Gym. “This was a big win for us,” said Wildcat head coach Rick Francis. “They’re a good team and we hung in there. We got contributions from everybody. I was really proud of the kids tonight.” The Wildcats grabbed control of the contest in the first half, jumping out to a 30-20 lead. But this is the Valley Oak League and there are no gimme-wins. Kimball came back to tie and send the game into overtime where the Wildcats dominated. Sonora didn’t allow Kimball to score a single point while the Cats put in 10. “Down the stretch we went to a 1-3-1 zone and we stayed in it,” said Francis. Nick Mays scored a game-high 20 points and Ben Bates added 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Wildcats to their second win in three games. Also for the Wildcats (6-12, 2-3 VOL), Josh Thacker poured in 12 points, Jeff Storey added eight points, Derek Smith six, Cody Hansten scored three points and Will Collamer scored two points and dished a team-high five assists. Sonora has a lot of work to do, but can still reach the playoffs if it can put some more wins together. The VOL is a tough and is likely to get a good power rating. The Cats’ schedule gets no easier as they finish the week with two more games, Thursday at East Union (13-3, 2-2 VOL) and Saturday at Weston Ranch (10-5, 4-0 VOL). Tip-off for both games is at 7:15 p.m. |