High school basketball: Lodi girls pull away late in nonleague game vs. Galt

Nov. 30—Twins Zoe and Kiah Aitken scored 14 points each as the Lodi High girls basketball team dispatched Galt High 52-35 on Tuesday at the Inferno.

Kiah Aitken came two rebounds away from a triple double, with 10 steals and 8 rebounds. Under the basket, both teams fought for rebounds, but Lodi was more successful, out-rebounding Galt 36-17.

"One of our goals as a team that we have made is to out-rebound the other team," said Lodi coach Kelsi Meier. "So our team works hard to go and get those offensive rebounds. That's something we've talked about before games, at practice, to be more aggressive than the other team, to want the ball more than the other team."

Lodi led wire to wire, though the Warriors refused to go away until fading late in the game. The Flames built a 19-11 lead late in the second quarter before a 5-0 run from Galt made it a 3-point game at halftime.

Midway through the third quarter, Lodi's Norah Mayer drained 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to give Lodi a 10-point lead at 28-18. Galt responded with one on the other end, but the Warriors weren't able to recover from the sudden turn in the game.

Mayer finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds, Malie Uhrich had 9 points and 6 boards, Emmy Spaletta had 2 points, Janie Schallberger, Isabel Humphrey and Merry Ferro had 1 point each and Grace Culler had 4 assists.

At times on defense, Lodi went to a full-court trapping defense, throwing a wrench in Galt's offense.

"We're actually just looking at it, especially in these preseason games. Preparing for league what this is for," Meier said. "We played man-to-man for most of the game, but we're just taking a look at different defenses to prepare for the second season, our actual league play, when it really matters."

It was Lodi's first win in three games this season, while Galt fell to 1-1.

On Monday, Lodi defeated Bear Creek 57-9 in the Foundation game, which doesn't count in the standings and sends gate proceeds to the Sac-Joaquin Section's scholarship fund.

In that game, Kiah Aitken led with 15 points, Zoe Aitken and Ferro had 10 points each, and Humphrey had 6 points.

"I think we're still figuring things out, figuring out who works well together. We have a solid group of girls, and there's different groups that work well together, so just finding the people that mesh better together," Meier said. "We're only in what, our third week? And some of our girls have come in through transitions because they were in other sports, so like I said, we're really just using these games to figure that out, and hopefully by the end of our preseason, we'll have it down and be really ready to go."

Lodi is on the road tonight at Chavez (1-1), while Galt will face off against Liberty Ranch (2-0) at 8:30 p.m. at the Galt Warrior Classic.

Boys basketball

Varsity boys: Edison 56, Lodi 48

The Flames stayed winless with Tuesday's loss, dropping to 0-4.

Connor Davis led Lodi with 19 points, followed by Matt Schiess with 11, Asher Schroeder with 10, 2 each from Brayden Stout, Zach Stephens and Matt Gobel, and 1 each from Matt Shinn and Nathan Morse.

Lodi starts at the Joe Nava Stagg Tournament today with a 5 p.m. game against Oakdale.