A furious fourth quarter saw Oakdale get close – but not quite close enough – as visiting Tracy walked off the Mustang gym floor with a 66-58 non-league victory in hand on Friday night.

Oakdale hosted Tracy in the preseason finale and though the varsity battled back with a huge 27-12 scoring edge over the final eight minutes, the early Tracy lead held up.

Austin Archuleta poured in 23 points, including 12 of his team’s 27 in the fourth quarter, to lead the squad. Shane Baxter had 18, eight of his in the final frame, and Nick McElmurry chipped in with six points.

Tracy took a 16-11 lead after one and were up 33-23 at the half. They stretched the lead to 54-31 after three frames and then held off the determined Mustang squad despite being more than doubled up in the scoring column in the fourth quarter.

Oakdale was scheduled to host Sierra on Tuesday, Jan. 7 after The Leader went to press and are due back on the home court for a Thursday, Jan. 9 contest against Kimball.

JUNIOR VARSITY

Trailing 36-27 after three quarters, the Oakdale JV Mustangs battled hard but could not get past the visiting Tracy team on Friday night. Tracy ran out to an early 16-6 lead but Oakdale outscored them 12-11 in the second to trail 27-18 at the half. The teams matched point for point in the third and Oakdale continued to chip away but Tracy seemed to have an answer each time the host team cut into the lead.

FRESHMEN

It was a 43-22 loss to Tracy for Oakdale’s freshman boys on the basketball court on Friday night, Jan. 3. Tristan Pedrotti had five points and Hunter LaCross added four, with a total of eight Mustangs chipping in to the scoring. Visiting Tracy, however, had just a little too much firepower and defeated the youngest Mustang hoopsters. A 20-2 run by Tracy in the second quarter was the big difference.