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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Sports

Monday, December 18, 2000

Eagles roll over Prowlers, 55-39

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 18, 2000 -- It’s been a while since the Pecos Eagles had a lead in a basketball game like the 24-point margin they enjoyed in the second half of Friday night’s game against the Fort Stockton Prowlers. And what was surprising was they did it while their leading scorer was on the bench with four personal fouls.

Senior Philly Fobbs scored 14 points in the first half of Friday’s game at the Pecos High School gym, but she also picked up three fouls in the half, and then was whistled for her fourth just over a minute into the third period. Pecos was already up by a 34-17 score at that point, but the Eagles were able to survive Fobbs’ absence both on offense and defense, widening their lead to 47-23 early in the fourth period, before ending up with a 55-39 win, their second in eight games this season.

 Maricela Arenivas hit a 3-pointer just after Fobbs left with her fourth foul, Kayln Lara scored six of her eight points at the end of the third and start of the fourth quarters, and sophomore Tiana Terry came up with a series of rebounds in her first game up on the varsity as Fobbs’ replacement.

“That’s why I moved her up, to help us with the rebounding,” said Eagles’ coach Veronica Valenzuela. “I told her there wouldn’t be any pressure on her to be a scorer or anything. I just wanted her to rebound.”

Arenivas would end up with a game-high 20 points while Fobbs finished with 16 before fouling out in the final period. Pecos also got seven points out of Jessica Rodriguez, as the Eagles did get a little more offense from their other players than in games earlier this season.

“I told the other ones they need to step up and take shots. Everyone is keying in on Maricela and Philly, so we have to kind of take the pressure off them,” Valenzuela said.

Pecos scored the first seven points of the game, on a pair of lay-ups by Fobbs off lob passes and a three-point play by Arenivas. Fort Stockton’s Bianca Olivas, who led the Prowlers with 15 points, then led a comeback, with a lay-up and two foul shots that helped narrow the lead to 9-8 with 18 seconds left in the period.

But Rodriguez then scored and was fouled by Arcie Pirmera with just under 11 seconds left in the period, and her free throw put the Eagles up 12-8 as the period ended. Fobbs then scored eight points on a series of jumpers, as part of a 14-4 run over the first six minutes of the second period, widening the Eagles’ lead to 26-12.

Aside from shooting better and passing the ball inside better, Pecos also had better luck with their press on Friday, scoring several times off turnovers. The Eagles also cut down on their own turnovers until the closing minutes, when Fort Stockton finished up the game by going on an 11-2 run to narrow the gap down to 16 points by the end of the game.

The win allowed the Eagles to surpass their one-victory win total of a year ago, going into their next-to-last game before the Christmas break, Tuesday night in Presidio against the Blue Devils, a team the Eagles lost to at home the first week of the season.

FORT STOCKTON (39)
Olivas 5 5-11 15; Primera 1 3-6 5; H. Gonzales 0 0-0 0; Munoz 2 1-3 5; Leyva 1 1-3 3; Quintero 1 1-2 3; Aguilar 1 0-0 2; I. Gonzales 1 4-4 6. Totals 12 15-29 39.

PECOS (55)
C. Arenivas 0 0-0 0; Rodriguez 3 1-1 7; Maldonado 0 0-1 0; Molinar 1 0-0 2; M. Arenivas 8 3-3 20; Lara 4 0-0 8; Terry 1 0-0 2; Fobbs 8 0-1 16. Totals 25 4-6 55.

Ft. Stockton  8   8   5 18 -- 39
Pecos  12 20 11 12 -- 55
Three-point goals: Pecos 1 (M. Arenivas). Fouled out: Pecos, Fobbs, Maldonado. Total fouls: Fort Stockton 13, Pecos 24.
 

Height, hustle carry Rangers past Eagles

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 18, 2000 -- There’s nothing the Pecos Eagles could do about the Greenwood Rangers being taller than they were. But they could have done something about the Rangers working harder than they did, Eagles’ coach Tino Acosta said.

The Rangers out-hustled the Eagles to loose balls throughout the first half of Friday’s game at the Pecos High School gym, while using their size advantage to score several second- and third-chance baskets at the same time. They helped Greenwood go on an 8-0 run at the end of the first period and an 8-1 run midway through the second period to grab a 31-17 lead, and they kept Pecos from getting any closer than eight points in the second half and came away with a 62-46 victory.

“The thing that most disappointing about the first and second quarters were they out-hustled us,” Acosta said. “We cannot play with that lack of hustle. If we do, we’ll get beat at every turn.”

Acosta left guard Richard Rodriguez in the game after he picked up his second foul 1:55 into the game. “Richard was the only one moving out there,” Acosta said, but he was forced to sit the junior down after he was whistled for his third foul with 4:34 left in the quarter, all coming on attempts to block Ranger shot attempts under the basket.

Pecos trailed 10-7 when Rodriguez sat down, and while they would cut the lead to 11-9 on a Freddy Torres’ rebound lay-up, the Eagles were caught flat-footed a number of times after that, allowing the Rangers to come up with a series of steals and fast-break lay-ups.

Post Jeff Adas did the damage early for the Rangers, opening with a 3-point jumper before scoring on a series of in-close baskets, as part of his 14-point night. After that, it was guard Will Womack who hurt Pecos in the two runs by the Rangers, scoring eight of his 11 points in those streaks. But in the end the Rangers needed the second half lay-ups of Justin Graham to put the Eagles away, after Pecos cut a 39-24 halftime deficit to 54-44 early in the final period.

Alex Garcia hit a pair of 3-pointers and Cesar Coria found some openings inside against the taller Rangers for a lay-up and series of foul shots. Garcia led Pecos with 11 points, while Coria was next for the Eagles with eight. But Rodriguez was never able to find his shooting range after coming back into the game, and Womak came away with a steal and lay-up when Pecos had a chance to cut the margin below 10.

Graham then put in six of his 12 points on lay-ups with under four minutes to play, which sealed the victory for Greenwood.

“We cut it to 10, we cut it to 11, but we just couldn’t get that shot to get us over the point,” said Acosta, whose team fell to 3-8 on the season going into tonight’s 7:30 p.m. game against Kermit, which defeated Greenwood the previous weekend at the Stanton Tournament. Pecos then closes out pre-Christmas play on Tuesday, with a trip to Monahans to face the Loboes.

GREENWOOD (62)
Hatley 0 0-0 0; Hollums 0 0-0 0; O’Donnell 1 0-0 2; Carrasco 2 1-2 5; Womack 5 1-2 11; Hopper 1 0-0 2; Pinkerton 4 4-6 12; Mineffe 0 0-0 0; Rondorf 0 1-2 1; Graham 6 0-0 12; Holister 0 0-0 0; Andas 6 1-4 14; Fuller 2 1-1 5. Totals 26 9-18 62.

PECOS (46)
A.Garcia 4 0-0 11; S. Garcia 1 0-0 3; Cervantes 0 0-0 0; Rodriguez 2 0-0 5; Varela 2 0-0 4; Torres 2 0-1 4; Salazar 0 0-0 0; Tarin 2 0-0 4; Ortega 2 1-2 5; Mora 0 0-0 0; Vasquez 1 0-0 2; Coria 2 4-8 8. Totals 18 5-12 46.

Greenwood 21 17 11 12 -- 62
Pecos  11 13 13   9 -- 46
Three-point goals: Greenwood 1 (Andas), Pecos 5 (A. Garcia 3, S. Garcia, Rodriguez). Fouled out: None. Total fouls: Greenwood 15, Pecos 14.
 

Bears down Bucks to win VH tourney


PECOS, Dec. 18, 2000 -- The Balmorhea Bears won their second boys basketball tournament title in as many weeks on Saturday, as they defeated the Alpine Bucks, 42-35, to take first place in the Van Horn Invitational Tournament.

Balmorhea’s girls, meanwhile, won their opener over Van Horn’s junior varsity, 59-21, then lost to Alpine and Tornillo in their final two tournament games, by 50-33 and 36-35 scores.

The Bears, who took first place the previous weekend at the Buena Vista Tournament, got 25 points from Isaiah Rodriguez and led almost all the way in the title game victory over the Bucks. The Bears reached the tournament finals with a 63-24 win over Van Horn’s JV in the first round of the tournament, then defeated the host Eagles’ varsity in their quarterfinal round game by a 48-35 score before downing district rival Sierra Blanca in the semifinals by a 61-42 final score.

The girls got 23 points from Celina Rodriguez, 18 from Julia Garlick and 13 from Teri Hernandez in their opening round win. Hernandez had 14 in the second round against Alpine, but Rodriguez had only nine points and Garlick seven against the Bucks, coach Gary Gallego said.

“We were actually ahead two minutes into the second quarter (15-13), and then the roof caved in. They caught on fire and at the half they were ahead 25-17,” he said. “They had too many girls and just wore us down. They had too many athletes and too much height.”

Gallego said on Saturday against Tornillo the Bears were down by eight after three quarters, then rallied in the final period and had a chance to tie the game at the end of regulation. “Celina went in for the tying basket and was fouled with three seconds left. She made the front end of her one-and-one, but missed the second and that was the ballgame.”

Rodriguez ended up with 13 points, while Hernandez led the Bears with 18 points. Meanwhile, Presidio ended up winning the tournament, beating Alpine in the semifinals, 45-37, then downing Dell City in the title game, 52-28.

The games were the final ones of 2000 for both Balmorhea teams. The boys will go into the holidays with an 8-2 record, while the girls are 5-8 including one forfeit, and both teams will resume play on Jan. 2 back in Van Horn against the Eagles.



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