|
Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Eagles turn tables on Tigers with 46-43 victory
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Payback came quickly for the Pecos Eagles' basketball team against
the Snyder Tigers.
The Eagles, who lost by 10 points four days ago to Snyder in the opening
round of the Gym Bice Tournament in Andrews, cut down on their turnovers
and their fouls Tuesday night at the Pecos High School gym, and were able
to cut down the Tigers, by a 46-43 final score to get back to the .500 mark
for the season.
Jose Reyes hit his third 3-point jumper of the night with 2½ minute
to play to put Pecos ahead to stay at 42-40, and John Parent followed with
a lay-up, both off passes from Joey Ortega, before the Eagles had to sweat
out some poor foul shooting over the final 30 seconds to get the victory.
Ortega and Parent both fouled out of last week's 58-48 loss to Snyder,
but the biggest change Tuesday night was probably from Eagles' point guard
Bino Barreno. The junior struggled with turnover problems in Andrews last
Thursday and still had a few Tuesday night, but was able to get the ball
inside other times for lay-ups and assists to teammates, something all of
Pecos' guards had problems with at the tournament.
"We made a decision to stick with one guy at point guard," said coach
Joe Flores. "Point guard is kind of like quarterback on offense. It's not
as good as it can be when you have more than one quarterback.
"We decided we're going to go ahead and stick with Bino, whether he gets
20 turnovers or not. He's our point guard and Genaro (Mendoza) is his backup
and that's going to be the show," Flores said.
In the opening period, the teams traded the lead three times and ended
with Pecos up 10-8. But the final two points came from Snyder post Jose Mendoza
on a buzzer basket off a steal, and in the second quarter Mendoza would put
in a dozen more points, including a 3-point jumper that gave the Tigers their
biggest lead of the night, at 25-17.
The Eagles were able to cut that to six just before the halftime buzzer,
when Isaiah Armendariz put in a missed halfcourt shot by Barreno, but spent
the entire third period trying to cut into the Tigers' lead. They would get
it down to one, at 30-29, on a Justin Lara lay-up, before Mendoza hit a lay-up
of his own to give Snyder a three-point lead entering the final period.
The Eagles finally did get the lead off a steal and lay-up by Barreno
and two foul shots by Parent. Snyder would tie it at 33-33 on a free throw
by Lee Scott, who would later hit from 3-point range to put Snyder by 38-37
with five minutes to play.
Ortega got Pecos back out in front at 39-38 on a short jumper, but was
unable to hit from the foul line after that. Scott then hit what appeared
to be a game-tying free throw, but it was wiped out after an appeal by Flores,
who told the officials that Reyes had fouled T.J. Jones trying to work through
a pick to guard Scott.
Jones then missed the free throw, but got a second chance at the line
with 2:48 to play and hit both shots, giving the Tigers their last lead,
at 40-39.
After the 3-pointer by Reyes and Parent's lay-up made it 44-40, Mendoza
scored the last of his 24 points, hitting a lay-up off a pass by Jones and
getting fouled by Reyes. His foul shot cut the lead to one, and the Tigers
then had three chances to take the lead, the first off a steal by Jones,
and the last two following missed foul shots by Barreno and Parent.
But Scott missed from 3-point range with 24 seconds to play, Logan Hill
then missed a lay-up attempt off a baseline drive at the six second mark
and Mendoza saw the high rebound off Parent's second miss tip off his hand
and bounce out of bounds with four seconds to play. Snyder then fouled Jason
Sanchez with 3½ seconds left and he was able to hit his two foul shots,
and Scott's long attempt at a game tying 3-pointer fell short at the buzzer.
Mendoza finished up with only six points in the second half after 18 first
half points, and no other Snyder player scored more than six. "We decided
to go ahead and put three people on him _ one in the three-quarter position,
one in back and one in front," Flores said. "We decided we were going to
let the other guys go and beat us if they could."
Reyes led Pecos with 11 points, while Parent and Ortega had eight apiece
for the Eagles, who are now 4-4 on the season going into their opening round
game at the Monahans Sandhills Tournament on Thursday. The Eagles will face
Amarillo Caprock, and will then take on either Andrews or El Paso Riverside
in a tournament quarterfinal or consolation quarterfinal game at 1 p.m. on
Friday.
"Those first two games are going to be tough no matter what, but we're
prepared," said Flores. "Amarillo Caprock is a physical team, they play similar
to Snyder, but they're beatable."
Snyder did win Tuesday's junior varsity game, 44-38. Saul Pina and Rashad
Terry had 10 points apiece to lead the Eagles.
SNYDER (43)
McGaha 1 2-2 4; Hill 1 1-2 3; Jones 1 2-3 4; Clifton 0 0-0 0; Villarreal
0 0-0 0; Williams 1 0-2 2; Montoya 0 0-0 0; Scott 2 1-3 6; Mendoza 9 5-7
24; Early 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 11-19 43.
PECOS (46)
Sanchez 0 2-2 2; Parada 0 2-2 4; Armendariz 2 2-2 6; Mendoza 0 0-0 0;
Reyes 4 0-0 11; Barreno 3 1-6 7; Hinojoz 0 0-0 0; Lara 1 0-0 2; Parent 3
2-4 8; Ortega 4 0-4 8. Totals 17 9-20 46.
Snyder 8 17 7 11 _ 43
Pecos 10 9 10 17 _ 46
Three-point goals: Snyder 2 (Mendoza, Scott), Pecos 3 (Reyes 3). Fouled
out: Snyder, Jones. Total fouls: Snyder 19, Pecos 17.
Pecos shuts down Alpine scorers in 40-30 win
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Pecos Eagles and Monica Salmon scored the same amount of points
last year when the two teams met at the Pecos High School gym. Since
the Alpine Bucks had several other players on the court scoring points
besides Salmon, that was not good news for the Eagles.
Tuesday night at the PHS gym, Salmon ended up scoring far fewer points
than a year ago, and while the Eagles didn't score a whole lot more than
they did last December, they still went from a 52-point loss to a 10-point
win over Alpine, by a 40-30 final score.
Salmon hit twice from 3-point range last season, but scored 12 other baskets
on the way to a 32-point night in Alpine's 84-52 victory. Tuesday, Salmon
hit twice from 3-point range again, but was held to only two other baskets
and the Bucks as a team scored two points less than Salmon did by herself
last season, as the Eagles ended up winning for the fourth time in five games
to start the 2002-03 year.
Most of Salmon's points last year came on turnovers off steals from the
Bucks' full-court press. This time, Salmon scored once on a steal off the
press, but overall, the Eagles had little trouble getting the ball upcourt
against Alpine on Tuesday night.
"So far we haven't had too many problems breaking the press," said Eagles'
coach Veronica Valenzuela. "Our main goal was to keep Salmon from shooting
the ball. From the boxscores I've seen, she's scoring about 20 points a game
this season, and we held her to 13."
Alpine's best success with their press on Tuesday came at the outset of
the game, when they ran off seven straight points after a lay-up by Tiana
Terry opened the game. Salmon's first 3-pointer of the night put Alpine ahead
7-2, but after lay-ups by Terry and the Bucks' Mimi Fort made it 9-4 the
Eagles ended the period by scoring nine straight points, off a pair of baskets
and a foul shot by Stephanie Herrera and baskets by Jessica Martinez and
Leslie Rodriguez.
Alpine would spend most of the second quarter trying to catch up and finally
did, at 18-all on a jumper by Fort after the Eagles missed five of six free
throws earlier in the period. But a lay-up by Marissa Mendoza allowed Pecos
to go in at halftime ahead 20-19.
Neither team was able to find the range in the third period. Herrera got
the Eagles' first basket nearly three minutes into the period, but Alpine
wouldn't get their first one until Salmon hit a lay-up with 10 seconds remaining
in the quarter. The Bucks' only other points were two Maricela Garza free
throws, but the Eagles managed only three other baskets themselves, and led
just 28-23 going into the final period.
A couple of baskets by Alpine's Jesse Steen would help the Bucks climb
within three points early in the quarter, but after Madison Burns missed
a chance to cut the lead to one from the foul line with 5:03 to play, Danielle
Garcia and Herrera hit lay-ups and Natalia Ornelas hit a side jumper to make
it 36-27 with 2½ minutes to play.
Salmon hit her second 3-pointer to make it 36-30, but Frost missed the
front end of a one-and-one with 1:50 to play, and the Eagles were able to
clinch the victory with lay-ups by Terry and Herrera in the final minute
of play.
Terry and Herrera both finished with 14 points for the Eagles, while Salmon
was the only Alpine player in double figures. "I guess her teammates just
aren't up to her level yet, but our girls did do a good job defensively yesterday,"
said Valenzuela.
The Eagles next game will be Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m., when they
face Midland Christian in the opening round of the Stanton Tournament. "I
don't really know what to expect, but they're going to be tough," Valenzuela
said, adding that District 4-3A rivals Kermit, Greenwood and Presidio would
also be in the tournament.
A win would put Pecos into a Friday game against Kermit or Reagan County,
while a loss would have them playing again Thursday afternoon against the
loser of the Kermit-Reagan County game.
Pecos' junior varsity also defeated Alpine on Tuesday, 30-29. Kristy Contreras
led the JV with five points.
ALPINE (30)
Burns 0 0-2 0; Garza 1 3-6 5; Salmon 5 1-2 13; Ruiz 0 0-0 0; Fort 3 0-1
6; DelaO 0 0-0 0; Steen 3 0-0 6. Totals 12 4-11 30.
PECOS (40)
Rodriguez 1 0-0 2; Franco 0 0-0 0; Ornelas 2 0-2 4; Mendoza 1 0-0 2; Herrera
6 2-6 14; Martinez 1 0-1 2; V. Garcia 0 0-0 0; D. Garcia 1 0-1 2; Terry 7
0-0 14. Totals 19 2-10 40.
Alpine 9 10 4 7 _ 30
Pecos 13 7 8 12 _ 40
Three-point goals: Alpine 2 (Salmon 2), Fouled out: None. Total fouls:
Alpine 21, 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
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2002 by Pecos Enterprise
|