The Madera Coyotes girls basketball team instantly found itself in a first quarter hole and couldn’t quite dig out of it in a 55-36 loss to the Bullard-Fresno Knights in Joe Flores Gym.
The Coyotes trailed 20-5 after the first quarter thanks to hot 3-point shooting from Bullard’s Geizzle Jones, who hit four while scoring 14 of 20 points.
However, Madera kept pace the rest of the way with Bullard outscoring the Coyotes 39-31.
Ryhnne Mitchell led the Coyotes with 12 points, but she was the only player in double figures.
Jones hit two 3-pointers to open the game before the Coyotes could even blink. Mitchell converted a 3-point play, but the Knights scored the next 11 points with another two 3-pointers from Jones.
Mitchell stopped the run with a diving bucket, but Madera trailed 20-5 after eight minutes of play.
Bullard extended the lead to 19 with a pair of buckets in the second quarter.
Lilly Smith hit a 3-pointer and Mitchell made a layup to try to cut into the lead. After two free throws from the Knights, Kaylee Patlan scored on a drive. Mitchell and Andrea Garcia answered Bullard buckets with a layup.
Patlan found Garcia for a layup to close out the second quarter trailing by 12.
Bullard opened the third quarter with six straight points.
Garcia stopped the run with a steal and layup.
After a Jasmine Levy free throw, Garcia put back a miss and Faith Rocha banked in a 3-pointer to cut Bullard’s lead to 28-38 with about a minute to go.
The 3-pointer must have woken a sleeping giant because the Knights scored the next 15 points to open a 53-28 lead.
Shalynn Garcia stopped the run with a pull-up 10 footer and Mitchell made a layup, but Bullard kept the lead at more than 20 with a layup.
Patlan made a free throw, Aasyria Goins made a layup and Mitchell made a layup to cut the deficit under 20 points at the end.
Madera played Roosevelt on Monday, then play at San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno on Wednesday and host Sanger on Friday.