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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Eagles survive struggles to get past Bucks, 50-39
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Coach Joe Flores doesn't know if the Pecos Eagles were tired or lazy
or whether it was a combination of the two. But the Eagles were at far
from their best Monday night at home, despite pulling out a victory over
the Alpine Bucks.
Pecos never trailed in the game, and got back to the .500 level on the
season with a 50-39 victory over Alpine at the Pecos High School gym. But
coming after last month's easy 56-24 victory on the Bucks' home court, Flores
was not happy to watch his team almost blow a 15-point third quarter lead
before tightening up their defense over the final three minutes of play.
"I don't know what to attribute our sloppiness to. I don't know if we're
tired because we've played nine ballgames in the two weeks, or if we're starting
to fall back into bad habits and just getting lazy," Flores said. "It's probably
a little bit of both."
"We talked to them about what was coming and told them Alpine was a much
better team than what we faced a month ago," he added. "Alpine was coming
off winning the Fort Davis tournament, so they had a little momentum going.
Our kids knew what was coming, but didn't respond too well."
Alpine had cut a 22-12 halftime lead to 26-20 on a Steven Rodriguez lay-up
when Jose Reyes hit a 3-point shot to start a 9-0 run for Pecos over a two
minute span. Isaiah Armendariz hit a lay-up and Bino Barreno scored on a
length of the court drive and followed that up with a foul line jumper to
give the Eagles a 35-20 lead with 90 seconds left in the third period
But that margin vanished just as quickly as it was obtained. Ryan McWilliams
hit a foul line jump for Alpine to break the streak, Casey O'Bryant and Rodriguez
added baskets before the quarter ended, and after Rodriguez hit a 3-point
play nine seconds into the fourth quarter and Jaime Rojo scored on a lay-up
off a thrown away inbounds pass by Pecos, the Bucks found themselves trailing
by only a 35-31 margin with over seven minutes to play.
Jason Sanchez then hit a 3-pointer to stop that run, and the Eagles would
go back out to a nine-point lead, at 41-32 after a Justin Lara lay-up with
six minutes to play. But Pecos would need one more 3-pointer, this one by
Armendariz with 3½ minutes remaining, to stop one more Alpine rally,
after a McWilliams jumper and a 3-pointer by Rojo cut the lead back to four,
at 41-37, with 3:55 to play.
"We just looked slow out there. We looked like we were going through the
motions," said Flores, who was able to get his team to play better on defense
after calling a time-out following Rojo's basket.
The Eagles would have trouble on offense their next couple of times down
the court, but were able to deny Alpine on defense over during that same
span, until McWilliams banked in a shot with 1:03 to play, cutting the lead
to 44-39. The Bucks were then forced to foul to try and get the ball back,
but Armendariz hit two free throws with 45.2 seconds left, and Barreno would
hit one more free throw after stealing the ball from McWilliams with under
30 seconds to play, then hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final 11-point
margin.
While the Eagles' 3-point shooting in the second half was on-target, they
had trouble connecting on shots from closer range, but were able to stay
ahead of Alpine in the first half thanks to rebound lay-ups. Armendariz,
John Parent and Lara scored off rebounds of missed Pecos shots in the first
period, and Armendariz would score off another rebound basket in the second
period, when the Eagles doubled their five-point lead after one period to
22-12.
Armendariz finished with 13 points and Barreno had 12 for the Eagles,
who improved to 6-6 on the season, while Rodriguez put in 12 points to lead
Alpine.
Monday's game was the final one at home for Pecos for two weeks. They'll
resume play after the Christmas holidays by hosting Jal, N.M., on Dec. 30,
but before then will close out their pre-holiday schedule at Crane on Friday.
Pecos also won Tuesday's freshman and junior varsity games, by 51-44 and
54-29 scores. Josh Anchondo led the ninth graders with 17 points and Saul
Pina topped the JV with 14.
ALPINE (39)
Rojo 2 0-0 5; McWilliams 4 0-0 8; Villanueva 0 0-0 0; Estrada 2 0-0 5;
O'Bryant 4 0-2 8; Rodriguez 5 2-3 12; Tucker 0 1-2 1; Lara 0 0-1 0. Totals
17 3-8 39.
PECOS (50)
Sanchez 1 3-4 6; Armendariz 5 2-2 13; Mendoza 0 0-0 0; Reyes 1 0-0 3;
Barreno 5 1-2 12; Hinojoz 0 0-1 0; Lara 2 0-0 4; Parent 2 0-0 5; Ortega 3
1-4 7. Totals 19 7-13 50.
Alpine 5 7 14 13 _ 39
Pecos 10 12 13 15 _ 50
Three-point goals: Alpine 2 (Estrada, Rojo), Pecos 5 (Parent, Rayos, Sanchez,
Armendariz, Barreno). Fouled out: None. Total fouls: Alpine 11, Pecos 12.
Rec department registering kids for basketball
The Reeves County Community Sports and Recreation Department is signing
up boys and girls now through Jan. 4 for the winter Pee Wee basketball program,
which will begin in January at the old Pecos High School gym.
The league will be divided into age groups, starting with children 4½
and up and continuing through sixth grade boys and girls. Parents can pick
up their registration forms at the recreation department office during regular
hours.
Parents returning registration forms must also provide a birth certificate
and signatures from both parents on the form. Registration fee is $10 per
child. For further information, contact the recreation department at 447-9776.
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
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