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PECOS, Jan. 10 -- Depth, a problem for the Pecos Eagles early in their
first two District 4-4A basketball games, was a factor again Thursday
night in the Eagles' matchup with the Andrews Mustangs. But this time,
the problems didn't show up until the final few minutes of play.
Going with only six players in the second half, and seven players
overall, Eagles' coach Patty Hall said, "We ran out of gas," in the
closing minutes, when Andrews outscored Pecos 10-4 to turn a 46-45 lead
into a 56-49 victory.
The Eagles missed their best chance in five years to beat the Mustangs
when their shooting went cold in the last three minutes. After a steal
and lay-up by Lori Marquez cut Andrews' lead to one point, the Eagles
missed their next six shots, while senior Kacee Connally was scoring six
straight points and Keitha Ramsey added a lay-up for a 54-46 lead.
Connally finished with a game-high 25 points, but unlike recent years,
in which she and the other Mustangs have dominated play inside, the
Eagles held their own until the final minutes, despite early foul
trouble for starting post Ivy Thorp.
The junior picked up three quick fouls in the first half, and got No. 4
just 40 seconds into the third period, but was able to avoid fouling out
the rest of the way, while the other Eagles avoided foul problems until
the closing minutes of play.
"She showed a lot of discipline after she got her fourth foul in not
getting her fifth," Hall said of Thorp. "She even took a charge call ...
She played smart ball."
Pecos started off shooting well, as jumpers by Penny Armstrong and
Annette Marquez helped put the Eagles ahead early, 9-2. Andrews would
cut the margin to 11-10 by quarter's end and would go up by a 23-19
score in the second period, but the Eagles were able to come back and
take a 24-23 lead at halftime, on jumpers by both Marquezes and a foul
shot by Shirhonda Bell.
"In the first half, we did a good job controlling ourselves and
controlling the ball," Hall said. "We made good decisions underneath.
We're starting to look where we're passing the ball now."
Still, the Eagles have had scoring problems in the third period, and
appeared ready to have them again, when Connally led a 16-6 run that
gave them a 39-30 lead. But Lori Marquez then hooked in a shot over
Ramsey and was fouled, and her 3-point play began a 10-2 run by Pecos --
though the final two points of that run were courtesy of Andrews, as
Korrie McKinney rebounded a missed foul shot by Marquez and put it in
Pecos' basket at the third period ended, cutting the lead to 41-40.
Thorp, who finished with nine points, gave the Eagles their final lead
early in the fourth quarter, when she hit two foul shots for a 42-41
lead. But Ramsey connected on the last of her four 3-point jumpers to
put the Mustangs up 44-42. Thorp added another free throw, and the after
Connally and Marquez traded baskets both teams missed on their next two
trips downcourt, before the Mustangs began to pull away.
Marquez' had 21 points, but missed a couple of jumpers down the stretch
after being on target most of the night. "She just got tied. She didn't
get any rest tonight," Hall said. "Veronica (Carrasco, the Eagles' point
guard) sat down for a little while, and that helped her."
Ramsey finished with 14 points for Andrews, which tied Big Spring for
first in District 4-4A at 3-0, and are 14-6 on the season. The teams
meet tonight in Andrews. The Eagles fell to 1-2 in district, 6-10
overall, going into tonight's 6 p.m. home game against San Angelo Lake
View.
The Maidens were idle on Tuesday due to the snowstorm, after losing at
Andrews last Saturday, 47-30 to fall to 0-2 in district, 6-13 overall.
Lee Ann Roach led the Maidens in scoring that game with nine, while
Bridgette Leifeste is the team's overall scoring leader for the season.
Andrews also won Tuesday's junior varsity game by a 55-11 final score,
while the Eagles' freshman team fell to Wink's JV, 36-35. Hall said
tonight's freshman game has been moved to a 6 p.m. start, at the Zavala
Middle School gym.
Tonight's game will be the first of two in less than 24 hours for the
Maidens. They'll go back home to make up their snowed-out game with Fort
Stockton on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles, meanwhile, will close out
the first half of their district schedule at Big Spring on Tuesday.
ANDREWS (56)
Sutton 0 0-0 0; McKinney 1 0-0 2; Lopez 0 0-0 0; Ramsey 5 0-0 14; Fields
3 0-0 6; Gulley 0 0-0 0; Connolly 12 1-2 25; Esquivel 2 0-0 4; Kimberlin
2 1-3 5. Totals 25 2-5 56.
PECOS (49)
Carrasco 1 2-4 4; A. Marquez 3 0-0 6; Armstrong 3 0-0 6; Orona 1 0-0 2;
L. Marquez 9 3-5 21; Bell 0 1-2 1; Thorp 3 3-4 9. Totals 20 9-15 49.
Andrews 10 13 18 17 --56
Pecos 11 13 16 9 --49
Three-point goals: Andrews 4 (Ramsey 4). Fouled out: None. Total fouls:
Andrews 16, Pecos 12.
PECOS, Jan. 10 -- As ugly as the weather has been this week, Thursday
night's snow-delayed basketball game was even uglier for the Pecos
Eagles.
After digging themselves a 12-point hole in the first half, the Eagles
were able to come back over the next two periods, and finally tie the
game at 35-all on a 3-pointer by Eric Abila as the fourth quarter began.
But by then, the Eagles had already lost Omar Hinojos to fouls, while
and Jason Abila was forced from the game with a leg injury.
Eric Abila and Fabien Adame would follow Hinojos to the bench minutes
later, and without their four leading scorers, the Eagles were shut out
over the last 7:45 of the game, while Andrews put in 17 for a 52-35
victory in the District 4-4A opener for both teams.
"We scored three points in the fourth quarter, that's the bottom line,"
said Eagles' coach Mike Sadler, whose team will try to come back tonight
when they host San Angelo Lake View in a 7:30 p.m. start.
They'll probably have to do it without Jason Abila, who was due to go
in for X-rays to his right shin this morning. He went down with five
seconds left in the third period when he was battling for a loose ball
with two Mustang players. Eric Abila would bang his knee against the
wall two minutes later trying to stop a fast break. He was able to go
back into the game, but fouled out moments later -- one of 22 fouls
called against Pecos on Thursday, against 10 for the Mustangs.
"I wish I knew what to say. I'm sick as a dog about it," said Sadler,
who lost guard Nufie Flores with a broken leg last Friday and was
injured himself in a ice-related accident Tuesday night, along with
girls coach Patty Hall and athletic director Mike Belew.
Aside from the fouls and injuries, the Eagles probably played their
poorest home game of the season against the Mustangs, who won their 22nd
straight district game with a lineup featuring four sophomore starters.
Shaud Williams, quick enough to run for 2,000-plus yards in football,
was also quick enough to come up with several steals on Thursday. He
also found sophomore post John Kimberlin inside a number of times for
lay-ups, part of his game-high 18 points.
Williams also blew a couple of fast break baskets off turnovers, but
Andrews was still able to come up with rebound baskets, when the Eagles
failed to run downcourt on defense, leaving Andrews with a 5-on-2
advantage.
Combined with a lack of inside shooting, the Eagles were in a 21-9 hole
two minutes into the second period when they began chipping away at
Andrews' lead, when Jason Abila hit a foul shot and then fed Hinojos for
a lay-up off a turnover moments later. Two baskets by Adame followed and
the lead was down to 21-16.
The margin was five points at the half, but went to eight after Gabe
Falcon opened the third period with a 3-point jumper. Pecos then came
back, narrowing the margin to 29-27 when the real problems began.
First, Jason Abila picked up his fourth foul with 3:29 left in the
half, a minute later, Hinojos was called for a charge for his fourth
foul, a call questionable enough to get Eric Abila slapped with a
technical foul for commenting to the referee.
But it was still a better call than the one 80 seconds later, when a
motionless Hinojos was run into by Williams on a fast break and this
time, instead of a charge, a blocking foul was called, and Hinojos was
gone.
Even with that, a 3-pointer by Adame and a steal from Williams and
lay-up by Eric Abila kept Pecos within three as the quarter ended. But
after Abila's 3 tied the score, Andrews went up for good on two foul
shots by Jacob Lopez with 7:14 to play. Falcon followed with a pair of
free throws at the 6:30 mark, and Kimberlin scored on a fast break, the
play on which Abila injured his knee.
Andrews put the game away on lay-ups by Kimberlin and Williams over the
next five minutes, while the Eagles' reserves were unable to find the
mark, and the Mustangs' posts were able to control play inside.
Although they kept their 4-4A streak going, Andrews' season mark is
just 5-17 going into their game tonight against Big Spring. Pecos fell
to 7-8 entering tonight's game against the Chiefs, who saw their
district opener against Fort Stockton snowed out on Tuesday. Lake View
went 2-2 at last weekend's Del Rio Tournament, and are 11-11 on the
season. Guard Lance Velez and post Jorge Villareal lead Lake View in
scoring, with 19.3 and 15.9 averages.
Pecos did win Tuesday's freshman and junior varsity games over the
Mustangs. The ninth graders downed Andrews, 74-31, while the JV scored a
51-44 victory.
ANDREWS (52)
Helbig 0 0-0 0; Moore 1 1-3 3; Findley 0 1-2 1; Williams 2 5-7 9; Lopez
2 4-4 8; Falcon 1 2-2 5; Mayfield 1 2-4 4; Farris 1 2-2 4; Kimberlin 8
2-2 18. Totals 16 19-26 52.
PECOS (35)
E. Abila 4 0-2 11; J. Abila 2 3-4 7; Luna 0 0-0 0; Martinez 0 0-0 0;
Hinojos 3 0-0 6; Adame 4 0-0 9; Marquez 0 0-0 0; Navarrete 1 0-0 2;
Chavez 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 3-6 35.
Andrews 15 10 10 17 --52
Pecos 5 15 12 3 --35
Three-point goals: Andrews 1 (Falcon), Pecos 4 (E. Abila 3, Adame).
Technical foul: Pecos, E. Abila. Fouled out: Pecos, Hinojos, E. Abila,
Adame. Total fouls: Andrews 10, Pecos 22.
The change in the swimming season by the University Interscholastic
League this year moved up the District 4 meet by three weeks. It will be
held Jan. 25 at Fort Stockton, and the Eagles will then head back to
Lubbock two weeks later for the Region I swim meet at Texas Tech.
"There will be about 25 teams at Lubbock," Eagles' coach Terri Morse
said of today's event. "Four teams from El Paso and four from New
Mexico, and the rest from our region.
"I don't know if Big Spring will be there or Seminole, but most of the
other district teams should be," she added.
Pecos' boys are looking to reclaim the District 4 title from Big Spring,
after seeing their streak of six straight championships ended last year,
while the Eagle girls are hoping to fight off the Steers and Monahans
and earn their seventh straight district crown.
The boys were finishing first among district teams in pre-Christmas
meets, while the girls had one finish ahead of both the Steers and
Loboes in early-season meets.
Although the Lubbock Invitational is the Eagles' first meet since
mid-December, Morse said the team has been working out over the
holidays.
"They looked pretty good in the water. They looked rested," she said
Wednesday. Hopefully, they'll have a good meet in Lubbock and get ready
for district."
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