Gutsy performance sends Escalon girls basketball to Division IV section championship

Basketball is Macie Vickers’ third sport, but she says it is her first love.

The Escalon High School senior guard was a star on the school’s volleyball team and has already accepted a scholarship offer to play Division I softball at the University of Nebraska, but she will always have a soft spot for the hardwood.

“I’ve loved it ever since I was little. I used to play with the boys when I was younger,” she said.

Her love brought her back to the court when an injury could have sidelined her for the entire season.

She suffered a back injury while lifting weights during the summer but fought through it, continuing to play travel softball and volleyball in the fall. After going to the doctor, she decided to rest for the first two months of the basketball season, but was determined to come back to try to secure a league championship and make a deep playoff push.

She amped up her recovery, regularly using her stem recovery machine, taking ice baths and modifying her practice workload to give her best effort on game day.

“I just knew I had to come back for my team,” she said. “I knew that me being there was a big role and not even just playing but being in the atmosphere and bringing energy on the bench and off the bench.”

Though she is a “softball player”, Vickers has her share of basketball hardware as well. As a sophomore, she was named TVL MVP and in her junior season she earned All-League honors. Tuesday, she added another accomplishment, recording her 1,000th career point.

“I truly think bringing in all sports makes me how I am as an athlete,” Vickers said. “Showing younger generations that you’re not just one sport athlete. You can be a three-sport athlete, a four-sport athlete. You just have to find the time to put it all in.”

Vickers made her impact on the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV semifinals for the No. 3 Cougars against No. 7 West Campus Tuesday night. Her versatility allowed her to pressure Warriors guards while also mixing it up in the post, grabbing rebounds to ignite Cougars fast breaks. On offense, she attacked the basket, drawing fouls and added an extra ball handler when other guards were covered. She finished with 13 points.

She also helped the Cougars make program history with their 49-47 win. Escalon’s girls basketball team advanced to their first section championship game in recent history. They face Colfax Friday at 6 p.m. at UC Davis.

“As much as I love the community and I love coaching here and I would never leave, I just never thought that I would see the day that we were going to the section championship game,” said coach Joe Dalpogetti, who is in his 13th season as girls varsity coach. “The team is more of a family than a team and they really just care about each other. I’m just proud of the girls.”

Leader Sammy Lang makes the team go

Basketball is senior point guard Sammy Lang’s main sport.

She spent her first year at Escalon on the junior varsity team after transferring in as a sophomore, racking up 23 wins. In her two varsity seasons, the winning has continued as she and the Cougars have back-to-back 20-win seasons.

Last season, she was just the point guard, now she’s the leader, uplifting the juniors and seniors and setting a good example for the freshmen and sophomores playing up.

“It’s a big role, but it’s also not too much pressure,” said Lang, who was the quarterback of the school’s first flag football team in the fall and runs track in the spring. “It’s more like, you’re the leader. You’re the senior captain. The younger ones look up to you so you have to set a good example and play how you want them to play when they get older.”

Lang scored a team-high 16 points with 2 threes and made all four of her second half free throws Tuesday. She got out to a hot start, scoring nine points in the first quarter. She also came away with a handful of steals on the front line of the Cougars’ press.

“Sammy is an incredible athlete,” Dalpogetti said. “She’s definitely been a blessing to have in the program, she does it all for us. Elite defender, elite athlete, could knock down the three and can get into the lane and make stuff happen not just for herself, but for her teammates.”

Seniors come through yet again

It was only fitting the game came down to defense.

Escalon jumped out to a 20-7 lead after the first quarter, once again using their press to cause turnovers which they quickly turned into transition points. In the half court they had no problem getting into the paint for drop-off assists to post players and kick-out threes.

That changed when the Warriors switched to a 3-2 zone, which slowed down Escalon’s attack.

“Almost every team that plays man against us, switches to zone at some point,” Dalpogetti said. “That’s kind of been our Achilles heel all season long. I don’t really have an answer for it. If I did, we’d be better at attacking it.”

West Campus’ leading scorer Leilani Edinburgh did not stop attacking all game. She finished with a team-high 16 points and second leading scorer Esabel Otsuji added 15. Otsuji scored seven in the final frame.

“She doesn’t stop and we knew she was a terrific player,” Dalopgetti said of Edinburgh. “She had me worried. For the last couple of days I’ve been stressing about guarding her. (Otsuji) is really good too. I don’t wanna take anything away from her.”

West Campus chipped away at Escalon’s lead until it was cut to just one point with under a minute left. With the Warriors inbounding in front of their own bench, the seniors came through with one final defensive stand in the biggest game of their careers. Vickers forced a turnover and the ball ended up in Lang’s hands. She was fouled and calmly iced the game with a pair of free throws that hit nothing but the bottom of the net.

“Sammy transferred here her sophomore year, and I knew playing with Samantha Lang, she was just gonna make me so much better,” Vickers said. “Iron sharpens iron, so if she’s working hard at practice, she’s pushing me to work hard at practice. We just make each other better.”

Second TVL team to face Colfax for championship

Escalon will be the second Trans Valley League team in as many years to attempt to take down the girls small school dynasty in Colfax, which beat Riverbank in the other Division IV section semifinal Tuesday night.

Last season, the Bruins and Falcons competed for a blue banner with Colfax winning 56-38.

Now the Cougars get their turn in a matchup between a pair of teams that are very similar on paper. Both teams have just two losses, finished the season as league champions and feature four double digit scorers.

Escalon lost two TVL games, one to Hughson and the other to Riverbank and finished in a three-way tie for the co-TVL title. Colfax lost to Whitney, which is in a section final of its own, and fell once in Pioneer Valley League play to Marysville.

Falcons sophomore Madalyn Sigrist (14.2 points a game), junior Juliette James (13.7), junior Kaia Diederichs (11.0) and junior Laurlyn Massick (10.7) are all key contributors offensively and defensively. For the Cougars, Lang (15.1), freshman Arianna Velasco (11.8) sophomore Madison Babasa (10.8) and Vickers (10.0) carry the Cougars’ offensive load.

Still, Escalon will be considered by most to be the underdog at the University Credit Union Center Friday. Colfax has won 12 section titles, second all-time in the section to St. Mary’s, which has 21.

“We just have to come out and my coach would say play like the underdogs,” Lang said. “Just keep playing hard. We’re good athletes, they’re good athletes. So it’s going to be about who wants it in the end.”