Thanks to a fantastic all-around team performance, the Pioneer High School varstiy girls basketball team was able to calmly edge out a tight 62-56 win over Vacaville during Thursday night’s home Monticello Empire League clash.

“It felt amazing to win,” Patriots head coach Jeff McCallum said. “I feel like there were a lot of people who thought we wouldn’t do too well in the new league, but we have a lot more games left. We have to keep playing hard since the league will be after us now. We definitely did not have our best rebounding game, but luckily, our guards came through late and got some really key steals.”

With the win, the Patriots (7-10, 3-1) made it three victories in a row over league opposition. They came into the matchup in scintillating form after winning their previous two road league matchups against Rodriguez and River City by the scores of 44-23 and 44-40, respectively.

Before that, they endured two rough losses to same-side-of-town rivals, Woodland Christian, and a league-opening 83-21 defeat to powerhouse Vanden. Other key wins so far this season for the Patriots included a 47-30 road win over former league rivals Dixon, a 46-33 win over Gridley, a 42-33 win over Del Campo, and an emphatic 59-22 win over crosstown rivals Woodland.

“So far, I feel the season is going better than we anticipated,” McCallum said. “We had so many injuries for the whole first half of the season, but now that we have everyone back and healthy, we just want to keep building and going forward. We had three really close games in a row and several come-from-behind wins that show these girls have some fight. We are a very young team.”

Vacaville (5-10, 0-4 MEL) came into the game losers of four in a row, including league losses to Vanden and Rodriguez by the scores of 97-21 and 68-43.

Pioneer found themselves in a bit of a deficit at 20-15 with about five minutes left in the second quarter. After a rebound and outlet pass, the Patriot’s Alexandreia Coelho made a running layup to cut the lead to just three. A few seconds later, they’d tie the game up on an and-one as senior Peyton Thorpe bullied her way into the paint, making a shot and ensuing free throw.

Thorpe made another basket to take the lead at 22-20 on the next possession. With momentum on their side, Pioneer began to build a lead.

Junior point guard Naomi Navarro got back in on the action right before halftime after a breakaway layup to make it 24-23. With under a minute to go in the second quarter, Thorpe added a hook shot to her game highlights, giving the home side a slim 27-25 lead to go into the break.

Junior Marissa Bautista tipped off the scoring for the Patriots in the second half with a nice bucket to give the Patriots a four-point lead. She then made a free throw to extend the lead to five.

She finished the game with six points, three assists, six rebounds, a block, and seven steals. Bautista has been a steal machine lately. According to McCallum, she leads all California D3 schools with 5.2 steals per game.

After trading off a few possessions and baskets, Navarro took over the game, breaking a two-minute scoring drought with six straight points off easy layups to go up 38-33, leading Vacaville to call a timeout.

“That was the best game I have coached her in,” McCallum said. “She was on fire and anticipating everything. She was dynamite last night.”

Navarro had a game-high 25 points to go with her stat-filling four assists, four rebounds, and four steals.

The timeout appeared to calm the visitors’ nerves as they managed to grind the score to 39-37 going into the fourth.

Both teams traded buckets to start the fourth quarter. Navarro then nabbed herself a steal on Vacaville’s second possession and drove to the hoop. She’d uncharacteristically missed the layup, but Thorpe was right there to clean up the miss and put it back herself to go up 43-39.

On the very next possession, Bautista would find junior Alexandreia Coelho for an easy layup to extend the lead to 45-39. A few plays later, Thorpe made another basket to open up a 10-point lead.

Thorpe finished with a double-double Thrusday, putting up 19 points, 11 rebounds and no turnovers.

Vacaville battled back, however, and went on a mini 8-6 run to cut the lead to 51-47. Sensing that the team needed another basket, Navarro did what she did all night and drove to the basket on back-to-back possessions, pushing the lead up to 55-47 before Thorpe added the final blow with a basket inside to re-open the 10-point lead.

“Peyton was amazing,” McCallum said. “Payton played really sick but came through in the clutch to help us secure the win. It was a tough one, for sure.”

After trading off free throws and final frantic possessions, the Patriots escaped with a 62-56 win.

Up next for the Patriots will be a weekend off before they return to league action on Tuesday when they visit Wood. They will then wrap up the week by hosting Sacramento for another league showdown. Both games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

“I just want to see the girls keep progressing and getting better,” McCallum said. “I think they can make some noise in the playoffs if we keep doing that.”