Senior’s outburst powers Pack to semifinals.
 West’s Alfonzie Young squeezes past Modesto's Matt Vermuelen. Photo by Enrique Gutierrez/Tracy Press.
At a glance
West 68, Modesto 52
Maybe sometime Terrance Jones will have something to say — but for now, as the cliché goes, he’ll do his talking on the basketball court.
The senior forward powered the West High boys basketball team (7-2) to a Tracy Winter Holiday Classic semifinal date with 2006-07 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division II finalist Weston Ranch on Thursday. He scored eight of the Wolf Pack’s first 11 points — on a jumper, dunk, steal-and-layup and a post move — en route to a game-high 20 points Thursday and a relatively easy 68-57 win over Modesto (4-4) at West High.
West will meet the Cougars at 7:30 p.m. today.
“When we hustle — I mean, we should be good,” Jones said afterward. “Sometimes we try too much, we can be in a hurry and push it too much, sometimes. But we do the best we can.”
It was the only time all night Jones was subdued. He hauled in six rebounds and added five steals, and his eight first-quarter points helped West roar out to a 20-8 first-quarter lead.
With Jones and junior center Alfonzie Young (no points but eight boards) taking care of the inside, senior shooting guard Kris Beck was able to hit six 3-pointers for 18 points, and senior forward Frank Bonifacio added eight.
In all, 11 players scored for West, who led by 20 entering the fourth quarter.
Modesto’s only lead came on the opening basket of the game. The Panthers trailed 13-2 with five minutes gone, but did take advantage of a short-lived West scoring drought to trail just 36-27 at the half.
“We talked about putting a team away instead of letting them creep back into the game,” West coach Steve Thornton said. “We slowed down in the second, we weren’t hitting our 3s. … but Terrance did some great things.”
Modesto played without their coach, Don Wallace, who was attending to a family emergency. Whether it was a lack of focus or West’s defense, the Wolf Pack were able to capitalize on 18 steals and held their turnover count to less than 20.
Weston Ranch, which features 2006 tournament MVP James Nunnally, will be a much tougher a challenge than the Panthers, whose most reliable scorer was guard Nate Jackson with 14 points, much of it off steals in the second half. But Thornton seemed excited for the challenge.
“Nunnally is probably the best player in the area — they’re a very talented team, but it’s good,” he said. “You want to play somebody like that right now.”
West 87, Franklin 64
On Wednesday, the Wolf Pack used 20 points on the inside from senior forward Terrance Jones and another 19 on the outside from senior guard Kris Beck to dispense of Franklin, 87-64, on Wednesday in the opening round of the Tracy Winter Holiday Classic.
West (6-2 preseason at that point) advanced to the winner’s bracket. The Panthers, who feature the biggest man in the tournament in 6-foot-9 center Matt Vermeulen, met the Wolf Pack at 7:30 p.m. Thursday back at the Den.
In the opener, the Yellowjackets had no answer for either Beck or Jones, but they weren’t the main problems for Franklin early on. Five different players hit baskets for the Pack in the opening quarter as the hosts opened up a 19-13 lead. Beck stole the show in West’s 26-point second, draining four of his five 3-pointers for 12 of his 19 points, and Jones put in seven for good measure as the Wolf Pack led 45-34 at the break.
Jones added another nine points in the second half. Kyle Van Drimmelen scored 12 points, eight of it in the third quarter, and Andre Bolton added 10.
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