East Union girls basketball rebounds to beat Kimball, take top VOL spot. How it happened.

Kimball girls' basketball welcomed its longtime rival East Union into The Jungle as the two teams battled for the top spot in the Valley Oak League. Both teams came into the matchup undefeated in league play.

East Union would be the only team to leave that way Tuesday night. That's because the Lancers showed grit to beat the Jaguars 60-51 in a game that included foul trouble, questionable calls and lights-out shooting.

Read on about three key highlights as East Union continued its legacy of ruling girls' hoops in the VOL.

What Lancers did to turn the tide

There was no doubt these two schools had a history. From tip-off, hands were flying all over the place. The Jaguars came out with more energy than the Lancers. Senior Caiya Sims led the charge as she fought for every offensive rebound to extend her team's possession. This gave Kimball the edge and the lead.

Jim Agostini, East Union’s head coach, called a time-out.

“It's time to wake up guys,” Agostini said to his team during the timeout. “Our energies are not quite there and we have to match their energy right now because we're not matching it.”

The Lancers not only started matching Kimball's energies, but they took all the momentum. Senior guard Taylor Snaer rattled in a three-pointer to start the second quarter. That was the start of East Union’s comeback after being down as much as 10 points.

Snaer finished the half with 17 points, helping the Lancers outscore the Jaguars 32-27. Kimball’s fast-paced start wouldn’t last long as it would spend the rest of the night playing catch-up.

“I told them that they were not ready to play,” said Michael Turpin, Kimball’s head coach. “We go through periods where we get bored and they think we can just go through the motions. You can’t do that against a good team. You do that and you’ll find yourself down.”

Taylor Snaer, Emma Coronado show off their skills on the court

Snaer wasn’t the only player shooting lights-out in the rivalry match. She went toe-to-toe with Kimball’s Emma Coronado, a freshman point guard. When Snaer would get a quick layup in transition, Coronado would get a bucket to answer right back.

From dribble drive pop-up shots to driving to the rim, these two guards were unstoppable. Both led their teams in scoring. Snaer finished with a total of 23 points to continue her average of over 20 points per game in league play. Coronado finished with 18 points.

What put Snaer over the edge was her ability to not only score but to set up her teammates to score.

“They make it easy, the team may be younger but they definitely want to win as much as I do,” Snaer said. “They might have come in to today not understanding the rivalry and how much we want to beat teams like Manteca and Kimball but they came in just working as hard for it.”

Snaer dribbled out of traffic and drew defenders to her. On the wings, freshman Nylah Dyson was waiting to knock down shots. Dyson ended the game with 17 points. In the paint, forwards Ava Barrera and Donnese Payne were ready for the pass to get the open layup. They combined for 20 points.

Foul trouble or questionable calls?

Kimball’s aggressive start came with some consequences. Referees called fouls left and right in the first quarter alone. Along with the Lancers new found energy from a timeout, foul trouble took the Jaguars out of the driving seat.

“It was three to two, they had three fouls and we had two, next then you know we have 14 fouls to their three fouls,” Turpin said. “I can understand because we’re aggressive but they’re aggressive too.”

Kimball fans were vocal all game against the referees when they called fouls against the Jaguars. The foul trouble did subsided for the Jaguars, but it came at the end of the game, when it was too late to catch up.

What's Next?

Following this loss, Kimball will have a chance to redeem itself as it takes on Manteca this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Turnip hopes that losing to East Union will be the wake up call for his team so they can finish out the season strong.

East Union gets to relish that they are the only VOL team with a 6-0 record and four league games remaining. The Lancers will have to go through the Jaguars again in their final matchup of the regular season. Before that they will play against Oakdale this Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

“It's exciting and we’ll be celebrating tonight,” Agostini said. “I told the girls though that we haven’t won anything yet and it’ll come down to the end of the league as we have to play Kimball and Manteca again. We just have to keep winning games.”

Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record.

This article originally appeared on The Record: East Union girls basketball beats Kimball in Valley Oak League game