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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Monday, November 24, 2003
Eagles suffer Wildcat mauling in opener
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Assuming no one in District 4-3A or on the rest of the Pecos Eagles
boys basketball schedule has a guard being recruited by Bob Knight or
Lute Olson, things should be looking up for the Eagles after their
opening night game against the Lovington Wildcats.
Lovington guard Jawaan Payne, who is being looked at by both the
Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Arizona Wildcats, put on a show along
with his Wildcat teammates on Friday night at the Pecos High School
gym. The 5-10 Payne scored twice on fast-break dunks off steals in the
first half, then slammed down a one-handed rebound dunk in the final
period, putting an exclamation point on Lovington's 104-38 win over the
Eagles in the season opener for both teams.
"Those guys just shoot the ball real well. They're straight
basketball players," said coach Joe Flores, whose team will hope for
better results tonight when they travel to Alpine for their first road
game of the season, against the Bucks at 7:30 p.m.
Lovington, which was minus two players who were participating in the
Wildcats' Class 3A state playoff game in New Mexico Friday night,
became the first team to score 100 points on Pecos at home since the
Eagles began playing in the new PHS gym 20 years ago. But three minutes
into the game the score was tied at 1-1, and Pecos was the team that
had missed the best scoring chances in the early going.
But all that changed when Tydoe Lewis hit the first of 10 3-point
baskets on the night for Lovington and was fouled by Ricardo Morales.
Lewis hit his foul shot, and that sparked an 18-0 run by the Wildcats
over the next 4:15, until Saul Pina got Pecos' first basket of the
night with 45 seconds left in the period. Three Wildcat baskets during
the run came on steals off Pecos inbound passes.
"Our basketball minds are elementary, but we're getting better,"
Flores said. "We just have to keep working on those fundamental things,
like being able to pass without staring a guy in the face."
Payne's dunks came early in the second period, as the Wildcats took
advantage of their quickness and the Eagles' problems in telegraphing
their passes while trying to run their offense in Lovington's end of
the court. Ryan Hargrove and Jared Swenson also nailed 3-pointers in
the closing minute of the half, as the Wildcats went into the locker
room with a 56-15 lead.
That margin grew to 81-25 after three periods. Lovington's outside
shooting cooled down a little in the final two periods, but the final
one of the night, by Swenson, allowed the Wildcats to hit the triple
digit mark.
Payne led all scorers with 26 points, while Swenson had 25 and Lewis
23 for Lovington. Jose Reyes hit the Eagles' only two free throws of
the night and was the only Pecos player in double figures, finishing
with 10 points.
Despite the losing margin, Flores said, "I saw a lot of good things,
and our goal this year is to improve every game, and I think we already
have improved since our scrimmage," he said, referring to last
Wednesday's practice against the West Texas State School.
Lovington also scored an easy win in Friday's junior varsity game,
74-13. Jeremiah Jurado led Pecos with six points.
LOVINGTON (104)
J. Payne 11 0-1 26; Lewis 10 1-1 23; Hargrove 3 0-0 8; Swanson 9 5-6
25; Morgan 2 1-1 5; Gonzales 0 0-0 0; Olivas 3 0-1 6; Corral 0 0-0 0;
Evans 1 0-0 2; Black 0 0-0 0; McBee 0 0-0 0; T. Payne 3 3-3 9. Totals
42 10-13 104.
Pecos (38)
Parada 2 1-4 5; Morales 0 0-0 0; Pina 3 1-2 7; Reyes 3 2-2 10;
Anchondo 2 1-2 5; Lara 3 3-4 9; Medina 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 8-14 38.
Lovington 23 33 25 23 104
Pecos 3 12 10 13 38
Three-point goals: Lovington 10 (J. Payne 4, Lewis 2, Hargrove 2,
Swenson 2), Pecos 2 (Reyes 2). Fouled out: None. Total fouls: Lovington
14, Pecos 13.
Inside baskets get Pecos girls win in opener
Height is not something the Pecos Eagles' girls basketball team is
blessed with this year, or pretty much any year.
That usually hurts the Eagles during the course of a season, but on
Friday night, in their 2003-04 season opener, Pecos was the team doing
most of the scoring inside, as they went to Presidio and came away with
a 57-38 non-district victory over their District 4-3A rivals.
"We made most of our shots from inside," said Eagles' coach Veronica
Valenzuela, as post Vanessa Garcia led all scorers with 18 points. "She
made some good cuts to the basket or was in position to get the rebound
and put it back up," Valenzuela said.
Leslie Rodriguez also was in double figures for Pecos with 12
points, even though Valenzuela said she and Mari Mendoza got into early
foul trouble.
The Eagles took a 16-10 lead after one period, and then widened that
margin to 21 points at halftime by outscoring the Blue Devils 17-2 in
the second quarter. "We were ahead by 28 or 30 points in the second
half, but then we started rushing things when we didn't have to,"
Valenzuela said.
"We did a lot of good things, but there are still some things we
have to work on. We need to work on our blocking out and turnovers. We
managed to win by 19, but we still had 37 turnovers," she added.
Presidio was led by Ivet Mendoza, who had 17 points. The loss
dropped the Blue Devils to 0-2 on the season. Presidio did win Friday's
junior varsity game, 38-21. Chantelle Mazzone led Pecos with 12 points.
The Eagles will be back in action, and back on road, today and
Tuesday. They'll go to Wink tonight for 5 and 6:30 p.m. games against
the Wildcats, and will go another 25 miles past there on Tuesday to
Jal, N.M., for games against the Panthers.
PECOS (57)
Rodriguez 5 2-3 12; Carrasco 0 0-0 0; D. Garcia 3 1-2 7; M. Mendoza
1 0-0 2; Herrera 1 2-4 4; O. Mendoza 3 2-4 8; V. Garcia 9 0-1 18;
Armendariz 3 0-0 6. Totals 25 7-14 57.
PRESIDIO (38)
Mendoza 7 2-4 17; Carrasco 0 4-8 4; Rivas 1 0-2 2; Pantoja 0 0-0 0;
Fassett 0 0-0 0; Tellez 0 1-8 1; Lowan 4 2-3 10; Velasquez 4 2-3 10;
Seativo 0 0-0 0; Tavarez 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 11-27 38.
Pecos 16 17 10 14 57
Presidio 10 2 9 17 38
Three-point goals: Presidio 1 (Mendoza). Fouled out: Pecos, M.
Mendoza. Total fouls: Pecos 23, Presidio 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 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
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