Torres falls under the pressure

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune

Matilda Torres’ Arturo Corona (14) drives to the bucket to score two of his team-high 24 points in Wednesday’s North Yosemite League loss to Roosevelt.

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The Matilda Torres Toros boys basketball team stayed with the Roosevelt Rough Riders in three of the four quarters, but it was the second quarter that proved to be the main difference.

The Rough Riders outscored the Toros 22-7 and turned a two-point deficit at the first quarter break into a 13 point lead at the half in Wednesday’s North Yosemite League opener at Torres.

“We didn’t execute anything I thought was on our gameplan,” head coach Charles Rigby said. “We’re young. We’re in a tough league and Roosevelt is a good team.”

The Toros got an outstanding performance from Arturo Corona Jr., who scored a team-high 24 points. However, the rest of the team combined for 18 points and no one scored more than six points.

“The ball has to go in the bucket and it wasn’t going in,” Rigby said.

The Toros hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter and two in the fourth quarter, but missed every one in between. They were 4-of-19 form 3-point land.

“I thought we could have gotten a few more whistles” Rigby said. “We wanted to play downhill, get to the free throw line and get easy money.”

Unfortunately, the Toros only went to the line three times and went 2-for-5 on free throws.

The Toros jumped to the early first quarter lead behind 3-pointers from Corona and Demitrio Nila, and a driving layup by Corona for an early 12-8 lead.

Nila found Jose Soriano for a layup in the second quarter for a 14-10 lead. However, it was Roosevelt the rest of the way.

They went on a 20-2 run with Torres’ lone bucket coming on a Moses Soto jumper. The Rough Riders went from trailing by four to a 14-point lead.

Corona made a free throw and a layup, but Roosevelt led 32-19 at the half.

Corona opened the third quarter by converting a 3-point play, but the Rough Riders scored the next five to increase the lead to 15.

Lawrence Watson put back a miss and Corona answered a 3-pointer with a layup.

Roosevelt made a layup for a 16-point lead, but corona tried to get the Toros back in the game.

After a Watson rebound, Corona made a layup. He picked up a steal after a Watson tip and converted it into a layup to cut the lead to 12.

Roosevelt quickly took back the momentum with a 3-pointer and a pair of layups. Corona made another layup, but Roosevelt made another for a 51-32 lead into the fourth.

A Roosevelt 3-pointer opened the lead to 22. However, the Toros got 3-pointers from Corona and Soto to cut the lead down to 16.

The Toros missed their next eight shots and couldn’t get back in the game.