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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, November 29, 2000
Slow start does in Eagles in loss to Loboes
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Nov. 29, 2000 - The Pecos Eagles' new uniforms were gold, but
rust would have been the more appropriate color Tuesday night, when they
opened their 2000-2001 girls basketball season against the Monahans Loboes.
Pecos scored two points in the first seven minutes of the game, fell
behind by 13 after one period and never were able to recover, as they dropped
their delayed season opener to Monahans by a 56-39 score at the Pecos High
School gym.
"The first quarter killed us. I think we were a little too nervous to
get anything going," said Eagles' coach Veronica Valenzuela.
Pecos had trouble both turning the ball over in their own end and playing
defense on the other end, especially against Monahans' forward Amanda Krone,
who scored 14 points in the first half and finished with 26 for the game.
"I told them to put a hand in her face and deny (the ball), but we just
didn't do that," Valenzuela said.
Philly Fobbs led the Eagles with 15 points, but scored only two in the
first half, which ended with Pecos trailing by a 32-17 score. When she
scored seven points over a 2½ minute span at the end of the third
and start of the fourth quarters, the Eagles cut a 38-21 lead down to 12,
at 42-30, but then saw their momentum stopped when Kristie Almanza stole
the ball and fed Krone for a lay-up, which keyed a 9-0 run by the Loboes
that widened the lead back to 21 points with 3½ minutes to play.
"We need to have somebody step up and be the leader. We had some trying
to run one offense and others trying to run another," Valenzuela said.
"I told them we can't wait until the last quarter to start playing."
A lay-up by Chastity Franco and two baskets by Krone gave Monahans a
6-0 lead before Pecos finally scored, on a Kalyn Lara foul line jumper
with 5:17 left in the period. But the Eagles would then go another 5:07
before getting their second basket, on a Becky Dominguez lay-up with 10
seconds left in the period. That made the score 15-4, but the Loboes were
able to add two more points before the end of the quarter, as Amanda Lowe
was fouled by Maricela Arneivas and hit two free throws.
Pecos went with only eight players on Tuesday, and after Arenivas and
Jessica Rodriguez ended up fouling out and Lara left the game in the fourth
period with an ankle injury, the Eagles had no subs remaining by the time
the game was over. The fouls also helped the Loboes on the foul line, where
they made 17 of 27 foul shots, while Pecos hit only nine of their 25 attempts,
though many of those came in the closing minutes of play.
"We hurt ourselves from the foul line. That was a big part of the difference,"
Valenzuela said.
After Krone's 26 points, Lowe was the next highest scorer for Monahans
with six, while Lara's seven points was the next best for Pecos after Fobbs'
15, and _ in a rare occurrence _ all 19 players who were in the game for
both teams Tuesday night scored at least one point.
The win was Monahans' first in three tries this season, while Pecos
falls to 0-1 after beginning the season two weeks later than originally
scheduled. The Eagles' next game was to have been next Tuesday at Odessa
Permian, but Valenzuela said they've added a 5 p.m. game at home on Friday
against the Presidio Blue Devils. The junior varsity and freshmen teams
will not play Friday, but both squads will be entered in the Pecos' JV
Tournament set for all day on Saturday.
Monahans also won Tuesday's JV game, by a 36-15 final score, while the
Eagles' freshman team was able to pull out a 26-13 victory over the Loboes
in their season opener, despite having only five players available. Leslie
Rodriguez led the ninth graders with seven points and Jessica Natividad
topped the JV with five.
MONAHANS (56)
Almanza 1 2-2 4; Alvarez 0 1-2 1; Taylor 1 2-3 4; Krone 9 7-11 26; Setzler
2 0-0 4; Gray 0 2-2 2; Franco 1 0-0 2; Bates 2 0-2 4; Porras 1 0-1 2; Armendariz
0 1-2 1; Lowe 2 2-2 6. Totals 19 17-27 56.
PECOS (39)
C. Arenivas 1 2-4 4; Rodriguez 3 0-2 6; Maldonado 1 0-0 2; Dominguez
1 0-0 2; Molinar 0 1-4 1; M. Arenivas 0 2-5 2; Lara 3 1-2 7; Fobbs 6 3-8
15. Totals 15 9-25 39.
Monahans 17 15 8 16 - 56
Pecos 4 13 9 13 - 39
Three-point goals: Monahans 1 (Krone). Technical foul:
Monahans, Almanza. Fouled out: Pecos, M. Arenivas, Rodriguez.
Total fouls: Monahans 21, Pecos 25.
Bears drop close game to Sanderson again
PECOS, Nov. 29, 2000 - The Balmorhea Bears were unable to avenge a narrow
season-opening loss to the Sanderson Eagles on Tuesday night in Balmorhea,
but they'll get another chance tomorrow, when they face the Eagles again
in the first round of the Sanderson Tournament.
Balmorhea, 41-37 losers at Sanderson to open the season, dropped a 48-43
decision at home Tuesday night. The visiting Eagles used a run in the third
and fourth periods to turn a 17-16 halftime deficit into a nine-point lead,
then held off a comeback attempt by the Bears in the closing minutes.
"I hate to make excuses, but one of the problems we had was Terri Hernandez
has been sick the last couple of days. She didn't come to school yesterday,
so she couldn't play last night," said Bears' coach Gary Gallego. "She's
our point guard, so we had to rely on our second and third string ballhandlers.
Terri's also our leading scorer, so it hurt us."
"One good thing about the team was we got down by nine in the fourth
quarter by as many as nine points, and the girls battled back," Gallego
said. "We cut the lead to five points and had a chance to cut it to three,
but one of our girls missed a lay-up."
Celina Rodriguez led all scorers with 19 points, including the only
3-pointer of the game for the Bears as they tried to rally in the closing
minutes. She also had 14 rebounds, while Chela Arredondo was in also double
figures in scoring for the Bears with 11 and Julia Garlick had 10 rebounds.
Gallego said Delilah Nunez and Jamie Jones played well defensively for
the Bears, with Nunez coming up with eight steals on the night. "That's
what kept us in the ballgame. Our girls are starting to play well defensively,"
he said, though Balmorhea's shooting percentage remained low on Tuesday.
Krystal Mumme led Sanderson with 18 points, while Tricia Montalvo had
13 and Anita Jones 10.
Balmorhea's boys were scheduled to open their season against Sanderson
last night, but Gallego said the Eagles were not ready to play yet, after
finishing their football season last weekend with a loss to top-ranked
Highland in the second round of the playoffs. However, the two teams will
meet in Sanderson at 8 p.m. on Thursday in the first round of the Eagles'
tournament, following the girls' game, set for a 6:30 p.m. start.
Fort Hancock faces Comstock, Marfa takes on Grandfalls and Wink faces
Fort Davis in the other opening round game in both the boys and girls divisions.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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