Boys’ Varsity Basketball Takes on the Cougars at Blackout

On January 17th this year, Ripon High Boys’ Varsity Basketball team took home another win against Escalon. The boys played a good game at this year’s blackout game with a score of 75-69. 

With Escalon beating RC, one of Ripon’s biggest competitors, and Ripon beating Riverbank, whom Escalon lost too, fans were unsure how the game would play out. 

“This year is going to be a good year for our boys. We saw it during football season and now they are going to show us during basketball,” Senior Elizabeth Media expressed. 

The opposing team gave a good game, it wasn’t an easy game, but they kept its neck on neck keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats. 

After winning state in football, several players like Nico Ilardi, Troy Brogan, Danny Hernadez, Dorain Dougherty, Grant Wiebe, and Austin Bonilla had to change gears and shape up for basketball.

“Football shape is a lot different than basketball. Basketball is a continuous sport, where football you have 15-20 seconds off between every play,” Senior Nico Ilardi stated.

After a long football season, they put away their helmets and went out on the court to join their teammates to play basketball. 

I see us doing something similar to last year, hopefully, better. I think we have a chance at a section championship if we play basketball the right way, and then from there, we will see

— Coach Justin Graham

Ripon High Students showed their spirit being buying this year’s blackout shirts and wearing them at the game. They continue to show their spirit throughout the boys’ season by attending and wearing red. 

Come out to the boys’ next game on January 21 against Hughson at RHS and show your support!