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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, December 4, 2002
Bulldogs run away from Eagles in first half
The Midland High Bulldogs were off and running Tuesday night against the
Pecos Eagles at Chaparral Center in Midland, as the Eagles found the 12
th-ranked Bulldogs a little tougher to handle than their first three
opponents of the 2002-03 season.
Pecos, which had allowed just 92 points combined in their first three
games, allowed 57 in the first half Tuesday against Midland High, and ended
up on the short end of an 88-38 final score.
Coach Joe Flores said the Eagles' main problem was the Bulldogs' fast
break, along with their own problems hitting shots, something that has hurt
Pecos in each of their games so far this season.
"We missed a whole lot of shots. Our shooting percentage killed us," he
said. "We shot 20 percent from the field, and 16 percent on 3-pointers, but
we actually shot our free throws better (11-for-14) last night."
"We had 17 turnovers, but most of them were unforced. We'd throw the ball
away due to being a little nervous," Flores said. "They got most of their
points off the transition. Our kids weren't used to that fast-break style
of offense, and their offense has good athletes and they were just beating
us down the court."
Midland, which was coming off a 39-point loss at Hobbs after five double-digit
wins to open the season, led by a 34-7 score after one period, and outscored
Pecos 23-10 in the second quarter for a 57-17 halftime lead. They outscored
the Eagles 31-21 in the second half.
"At halftime we decided to start all over again. I told them to just go
out there and forget about the score and play like it was 0-0," Flores said.
"We were still outscored, but the kids settled down."
"We still played good halfcourt defense, but our missed shots and their
transition killed us," he said. "Isaiah (Armendariz) was the only one who
didn't play intimidated on offense."
Armendariz was the only Pecos player in double figures, finishing with
19 points, while John Parent was the only other Eagle who had more than one
basket, and finished with five. Scorers for Midland High were not available.
The loss dropped Pecos to 2-2 on the season going into the opening round
of the Gym Bice Memorial Tournament in Andrews on Thursday. The Eagles will
play a 5:30 p.m. game against Snyder, who they'll face again next Tuesday
in Pecos. The Tigers saw Lubbock High use an 18-5 fourth quarter to score
a 58-48 win in Snyder on Tuesday night.
Sluggish Eagles still able to beat Van Horn, 52-26
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
It wasn't the greatest effort, but compared to a year ago, it did show
that the 2002-03 Pecos Eagles girls basketball team can come away with
an easy win despite a sub-par shooting performance.
The Eagles had problems hitting their shots and went over half the game
before getting themselves to the foul line Tuesday night against the Van
Horn Eagles at the Pecos High School gym. But despite those problems, Pecos
was still able to outscore the visiting Eagles in all four quarters, and
turned a six-point lead midway through the third period into a 26-point win,
52-26.
The win was the second of the season by Pecos over Van Horn. The Eagles
won on the road by a 50-33 score on Nov. 22, and coach Veronica Valenzuela
said she was worried before the game that the Eagles would relax because
of their earlier win.
"That's what I told them before the game. We played them before and I
didn't want to take them lightly, but that tends to happen," she said.
Unlike their last home game, when the Eagles shot well from the field
in the first half of their win over Presidio, Pecos had problems hitting
from the floor, and were slow at times on defense. But Van Horn had problems
of their own hitting shots in the opening period _ their first points didn't
come until Mandy Ortega hit a side jumper with nine seconds left in the quarter.
By then, the Eagles had put in 10 points, starting off with a pair of
lay-ups by Tiana Terry, and baskets by Leslie Rodriguez, Danielle Garcia
and Stephanie Herrera. That gave Pecos a cushion for most of the first half,
but they were unable to build more than an 11-point lead in the second period
and finished the half up by nine, at 20-11, following a rebound jumper by
Jessica Martinez.
"That's what we want to do, be more aggressive rebounding, but we still
have to work on blocking out," Valenzuela said. "We're still not doing that
under the basket."
Van Horn took advantage of a couple of early fouls and a lack of blocking
out by the Eagles as the second half opened to cut the lead back to seven,
and then narrowed the margin to six on a Vivian Anchondo rebound basket,
after Terry made one of two foul shots, the first free throws of the night
for Pecos.
The lead would stay between six and eight points until the closing minutes
of the quarter, when baskets by Terry, Martinez and Rodriguez doubled the
Eagles' lead to 12, at 31-19. In the final period, Van Horn went to a full-court
press on defense that the Eagles were able to break for several lay-ups,
as part of a 12-4 run in the first four minutes of the period that increased
the lead to 20 points, at 43-23. Pecos would add a few more fast-break baskets
in the final minutes to finish off their third victory in four tries this
season.
Terry and Herrera both finished with 11 points and Rodriguez had 10 for
Pecos. The three wins is one more than the Eagles managed in all of last
season. The varsity will have the rest of the week off before returning to
action next Tuesday at home against Alpine, while the freshman and junior
varsity teams play in their own tournament this weekend at the Pecos High
School gym.
The freshman and JV teams played a combined game on Tuesday against Van
Horn, and downed the visiting Eagles by a 26-18 final score. Olga Mendoza
led Pecos with eight points.
VAN HORN (26)
Franco 0 1-2 1; Clark 1 0-2 2; Gamez 0 2-4 2; Anchondo 4 3-8 11; Sigala
0 0-1 0; Dunn 0 0-0 0; Ortega 4 0-2 8; Ornelas 1 0-2 2. Totals 10 6-19
26.
PECOS (52)
Rodriguez 5 0-1 10; Franco 2 0-0 4; Ornelas 1 0-0 2; Mendoza 0 0-0
0; Arreguy 0 0-0 0; Herrera 5 1-2 11; Martinez 3 1-2 7; V. Garcia 1
0-0 2; D. Garcia 1 3-4 5; Baez 0 0-0 0; Terry 5 1-2 11. Totals 23 6-11
52.
Van Horn 2 9 9 7 _ 26
Pecos 10 10 11 21 _ 52
Three-point goals: None. Techincial foul: Van Horn, coach Kastedt. Fouled
out: None. Total fouls: Van Horn 11, Pecos 18.
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 2002 by Pecos Enterprise
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