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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide for Reeves County, Trans-Pecos, Big Bend of West Texas

Sports

Monday, January 12, 1998

Up-and-down Eagles overcome Rangers

By JON FULBRIGHT
Sports Editor
PECOS, Jan 12 -- Fabien Adame was in the right place at the
right time for the Pecos Eagles Friday night, and as a
result, the Eagles will go into District 4-4A play riding a
five-game winning streak.

On a night when it took a loud timeout by coach Mike Sadler
to regain his team's attention in the third quarter, the
Eagles still came close to squandering an 11-point lead in
the final four minutes of their game with the Greenwood
Rangers before winning by a 49-45 final score.

A running 3-pointer by Andrew Wootan with 1:04 to play cut
what was once a 47-36 lead down to 47-45, the Eagles then
worked the ball around the outside, before a pass to
Fernando Navarrette was deflected away in the lane by the
Rangers. Several players had a chance at the ball, but Adame
wound up with it, and was able to score with 24 seconds
left, allowing Pecos to take two of three games from the
Rangers this season.

Adame's basket came after his second straight quiet game in
a row, and after he spend much of the night in foul trouble.
"Fabien's just getting back into shape right now," Sadler
said. "He had that injury early (in the season), and then he
had to go out of town during the holiday break (while the
Eagles played in the Reagan County Tournament), so he's a
little rusty."

Have already played twice in the previous three weeks, the
teams were pretty well acquainted with each other. As a
result, Greenwood did a good job shutting down Jacob Chavez'
3-point shooting after a couple of early baskets. But the
senior was able to get inside and for one of the rare times
this year, had most of his 18-points from 2-point range.

Omar Hinojos also got inside for a couple of baskets early,
but saw the Rangers cut of his baseline drives most of the
night. That hampered the Eagles on offense, but it was the
way Pecos played on defense in the middle periods that had
Sadler annoyed.

"I just told them our intensity is not very high," Sadler
said. That came after a steal led to a dunk by John Settles,
which put Greenwood ahead for the first time all night, at
29-28 and led to Sadler slamming his clipboard to the floor
during the time out.

"We weren't hustling. We work every day on boxing out and
low and behold tonight we didn't box out. If we're going to
do well in district we're going to have to box people off
the boards," Sadler said.

The instructions took a minute to take effect -- Wootan
would hit two foul shots off a steal for a 31-28 lead -- but
Hinojos then tipped in his own missed shot, and followed
that up with a 3-pointer for the corner to put the Eagles
back on top, 35-33.

Sadler then moved Chavez inside on offense, where he would
get a pair of lay-ups in the final two minutes of the
period, which ended with Pecos on top, 39-33.

Adame, who was scoreless in the first three periods, then
had a pair of lay-ups early in the final period, the last
giving the Eagles a 45-35 lead. After a Settles free throw
Oscar Luna found a path inside for a lay-up, making it
47-36, but the Eagles then got sloppy with the ball, turning
it over three of their next four trips downcourt.

Calef Montes had a 3-pointer, a lay-up and a foul shot
before Wootan's basket, cutting the lead to two and setting
up Adame's lay-up off the loose ball scramble.

Hinojos was the only other Eagle in double figures with 11,
while Settles led Greenwood, 11-8, with 17 points, Wootan
had 12 and Montes 10.

The Eagles' fifth straight win gives them a 13-7 season
record going into Tuesday's district opener at Andrews. The
Mustangs were off Friday, after winning at Snyder last
Tuesday, 59-49.

Greenwood won Friday's junior varsity game by a 55-43 final
score, while the Eagles' freshman downed the Rangers, 39-30.
No scorers were available for the JV game, but Alex Garcia's
nine points led the ninth graders.

GREENWOOD (45)
Pallanez 1 0-0 2; Wootan 4 2-2 12; Montes 4 1-3 10; Reed 1
0-0 2; Johansen 0 0-0 0; Brooks 1 0-0 2; Settles 8 1-2 17;
Blake 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 4-7 45.

PECOS (49)
Garcia 1 0-1 2; Perea 0 0-0 0; Luna 2 0-0 4; Navarrette 4
0-2 8; Hinojos 4 2-4 11; Matta 0 0-0 0; Adame 3 0-0 6;
Marquez 0 0-0 0; Chavez 8 0-1 18. Totals 22 2-8 49.

Greenwood 9 8 16 12 --45
Pecos 12 10 18 10 --49
Three-point goals: Greenwood 3 (Wootan 2, Montes), Pecos 2
(Chavez 2, Hinojos). Fouled out: Greenwood, Montes. Total
fouls: Greenwood 15, Pecos 15.

Sweetwater pulls away from Pecos at finish

PECOS, Jan 12 -- The lay-ups weren't falling for the Pecos
Eagles Friday night, and there weren't that may of them
being taken by the Eagles to begin with.

Pecos got enough points from outside jumpers in the first
half of their District 4-4A home basketball opener against
Sweetwater to keep things tight. The first 16 minutes was
see-saw battle, but in the second half those shots stopped
falling and the Mustangs starting getting baskets off the
misses.

That turned what had been a two-point game at the half, and
a six point game after three quarters, into a 51-35 victory
for the Mustangs.

Vanessa Lehrmann scored 17 of her game-high 19 points in the
second half, including 9-for-10 shooting from the foul line.
Sweetwater was 15-of-17 overall while the Eagles' only foul
shots of the game came from Lorie Marquez with three minutes
to play, by which time the Mustangs had taken a 16-point
lead.

"We just never did penetrate inside with Lorie and Penny
(Armstrong)," said Eagles' coach Brian Williams. "I think
there were some more fouls there, but if they don't call
them, they don't call them."

Lehrmann hit for 29 points last year in Pecos, but after she
hit a short jumper following Marquez' game-opening basket,
the Eagles held the junior scoreless for the rest of the
half. However Marquez, who also scored 29 points a year ago,
managed just one more basket herself in the half, as the
scoring was left to both teams' outside shooters.

Lindsey Lepard had a trio of 3-pointers in the first half,
the first breaking the 2-2 tie, while the final two allowed
the Mustangs to take a 20-18 halftime lead. They came after
Pecos' Annette Marquez sank a couple from 3-point range
during a 14-4 run that turned a 10-4 deficit into a 14-18
Eagle lead.

But the Eagles also missed a couple of scoring chances
during the stretch, including two lay-ups off fast breaks.
They'd do the same early in the third period, when things
were still close, and Williams said those misses were costly.

"When you play against a good team you've got to take
advantage of everything they give you," he said. "They
weren't tough shots (the fast breaks, all but one which were
defended), but they just didn't fall for us tonight."

With his team holding narrow leads, Sweetwater coach C.E.
Carmichael went into a stall at the end of the first three
quarters. It backfired in the first period, as the Eagles
managed a Valerie Lara lay-up just before the buzzer. But
Pecos couldn't do the same in the next two periods, and when
the fourth quarter opened baskets by Lehrmann and Kori
Clemens widened the gap to 10, and four straight free throws
by Lehrmann upped it to 44-28 with 5:24 to play.

The Eagles had one last shot at getting back into the game,
after Erica Orona scored just past the five minute mark.
Marquez came up with a steal at midcourt and went in against
Clemens, but missed the lane bank shot. Lehrmann went back
down and scored on a short jumper, and Clemens scored after
that for a 14-point lead, which would get as large as 17 in
the closing minute of play.

Lepard had 11 points for Sweetwater, 15-5, the same as Lorie
Marquez, who topped Pecos in scoring. The Eagles saw their
seven game winning streak ended, and are now 11-8 on the
year, but Williams said, "That's just the first game at
home. Right now we're 1-1 and they're 1-1, and we've got a
tough game on the road Tuesday (at Andrews), but I have
every confidence we can go down there and win."

Sweetwater also came out on top in Friday's junior varsity
game, by a 60-24 final score. There was no freshman game
played Friday.

SWEETWATER (51)
Bender 0 0-0 0; Lehrmann 5 9-10 19; Lepard 4 0-1 11; Swindle
0 0-0 0; Clemens 3 2-2 9; Nannefield 1 2-2 4; Washington 3
2-2 8. Totals 16 15-17 51.

PECOS (35)
Arenivas 1 0-0 2; Lara 4 0-0 8; A. Marquez 3 0-0 8;
Armstrong 2 0-0 4; Orona 1 0-0 2; L. Marquez 4 2-2 11;
Hathorn 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 2-2 35.

Sweetwater 10 10 12 19 --51
Pecos 6 12 8 9 --35
Three-point goals: Sweetwater 4 (Lepard 3, Clemens), Pecos 3
(A. Marquez 2, L. Marquez). Fouled out: None. Total fouls:
Sweetwater 7, Pecos 12.

Pack back in Super Bowl

By DAVE GOLDBERG
AP Football Writer
SAN FRANCISCO -- The image of the Green Bay Packers is
Brett Favre, Antonio Freeman, Dorsey Levens and the
high-powered offense.

But it's the defense that's carrying the Packers to San
Diego, where, in quest of their second straight NFL title,
they will meet Denver. They've already been installed as
13½-point favorite to extend the NFC's Super Bowl streak to
14.

The Packers qualified for their second straight Super Bowl
Sunday by shutting down San Francisco 23-10 in the NFC title
game, largely because the defense performed brilliantly.

It held the 49ers to 33 yards on the ground and got a
58-yard interception return from Eugene Robinson to set up
the only touchdown of the first 55 minutes of the game.

``We knew we could dominate them,'' said linebacker Seth
Joyner, who will be going to his first Super Bowl after 11
seasons starring in Philadelphia and Arizona and never
getting close.

``It ain't even close who's the better defense in the big
games,'' said strong safety LeRoy Butler, taking a shot at
San Francisco's No. 1 ranking in yards allowed. ``All that
No. 1 defense stuff doesn't mean a lot to us. We're going to
San Diego.''

They also showed why rankings are meaningless.

Since their bye week with a 5-2 record, the Packers (15-3)
have moved up from No. 23 to No. 7 in yards allowed. And
excluding the 41-38 debacle in Indianapolis on Nov. 16,
they've allowed just 109 points in 10 games.

Even more impressive, they haven't allowed a touchdown pass
in 31 quarters, going back to the second quarter of that
loss to the then-winless Colts. ``Nobody's going to remember
that little slipup now,'' Butler said.

Sunday was typical of the second half of the season -- San
Francisco gained just 257 yards on the muddy turf of 3Com
Park, where a steady rain began at game time and intensified
throughout the game.

And so firm were the Green Bay defenders that the game
almost seemed over when Favre combined with Freeman on a
27-yard touchdown pass 3:30 into the second quarter to give
the Packers a 10-0 lead. That came after Anderson's
interception of Steve Young, who was 10-of-10 until then,
albeit many of them 3-, 4- and 5-yard dumpoffs.

San Francisco got a 28-yard field goal from Gary Anderson
with 58 seconds left in the half that made it 10-3. But
Favre and Freeman combined on a 40-yard pass to set up a
43-yard kick by Ryan Longwell, the second of his three field
goals, and it was 13-3 at halftime.

Game over?

Well, Green Bay got a 25-yard field goal from Longwell with
5:04 left; Dorsey Levens, who gained 114 yards on 27
carries, scored on a 5-yard run two minutes later, then
Chuck Levy returned the ensuing kickoff 95 yards for San
Francisco's only touchdown, the first kickoff return for a
touchdown in a conference title game.

But that was garbage time, more or less.

Broncos earn fifth shot at first title

By JOE KAY
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH -- Getting to the Super Bowl is no big deal for
John Elway -- been there, lost it three times.

Getting there with this Denver Broncos team -- now, there's
something to make him dream.

The 37-year-old master of big drives put together three
rather modest ones Sunday, sending the Broncos back to the
Super Bowl with a 24-21 victory over the Pittsburgh
Steelers.

Elway's fourth AFC championship was hardly fulfilling. He's
more interested in the notion that this team's balance might
help him fill the only void in his almost-finished career.

``I'm not happy about getting back to the Super Bowl,''
said Elway, who had come to grips with the possibility he
might never get there again. ``I want to win it. I've been
there before. I've never had a chance to win one.''

The title game against Green Bay might be his last chance.
It's certainly his best chance.

These Broncos (15-4) are much different from the teams of
the '80s, which relied on an undersized defense and Elway's
strong arm. Their defense got overwhelmed and Elway couldn't
pull off the one-man-offense in the three Super Bowl losses.

As the Pittsburgh Steelers (12-6) can attest, this Denver
team doesn't rely on Elway nearly so much. Terrell Davis,
the AFC's top rusher, ran for 139 yards and a touchdown
Sunday to take the pressure off Elway.

In the process, Davis became the first runner to top 100
yards all season against Pittsburgh, which had the league's
best run defense.

At the same time, Denver's defense -- the one that has
given up fewer yards than any other in the league --
intercepted Kordell Stewart three times and caused him to
fumble away another chance.

``You can't turn the ball over four times in an AFC title
game and expect good things to happen,'' said Pittsburgh's
Jerome Bettis, who rushed for 105 yards.

The Steelers put together one nice drive after another,
only to come up empty as their novice quarterback made one
mistake after another. He was only the fifth quarterback to
lead a team to a conference title game in his first full
season as a starter; all five have lost.

``Kordell is a great quarterback, but he hasn't been in a
big game with this type of magnitude,'' said Ray Crockett,
who had one of the Broncos' three interceptions. ``Once we
started making some plays, you could really tell. You could
see him tensing up. He was really not throwing the ball well
after that.''

He couldn't have done much worse. Stewart, who led the AFC
in interceptions, ended a second-quarter threat by throwing
into double coverage in the end zone. The result was his
first interception.

The second half was even worse. Pittsburgh controlled the
ball for 10:45 of the third quarter and couldn't score.
Allen Aldridge intercepted Stewart in the end zone to cap an
11-play drive, and Stewart fumbled on the final play of the
quarter.



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