Basketball Recap: Rancho Cotate's Victory on Friday Extends Winning Streak to Six

Rancho Cotate came tearing into Friday's match with five straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 17.2 points) and they left with even more momentum. They strolled past the Ukiah Wildcats with points to spare, taking the game 74-57. For the Cougars, this counts as revenge for the 56-52 victory the Wildcats walked away with the last time they faced one another back in January of 2024.

Leading Rancho Cotate to victory were Adam Pengel and Izayah Rush. Pengel went 9 for 18 en route to 25 points and eight rebounds, while Rush went 8 of 10 on his way to 21 points and six boards. The game was Pengel's third in a row with at least ten points. Decimus Shaw was another key player, putting up ten points along with eight assists and three steals.

Ukiah lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Jacob Lunceford, who went 5 for 11 on his way to 14 points and six rebounds. The dominant performance gave Lunceford a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Kaleo Olson, who went 5 of 10 en route to 12 points and five boards.

Rancho Cotate's win was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 15-2. As for Ukiah, their loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 4-15.

Rancho Cotate has already played their next contest (against St. Vincent de Paul), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Ukiah has already played their next matchup, a 57-51 defeat against Eureka on the 18th.