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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Sports

Wednesday, December 2, 1998

Navarette's return helps Eagles rout Cranes


By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 2 -- That height disadvantage the Pecos Eagles
have been working against all season was a lot easier to
handle Tuesday night with the return of senior post Fernando
Navarette.

The Eagles' lone returning all-district player regained his
eligibility after missing the first four games of the season
and put in 31 points Tuesday, as the Eagles snapped a
three-game losing streak with a 31-point win over the Crane
Golden Cranes.

Pecos defeated Crane by a 72-41 final score at the Pecos
High School gym, as Navarette gave the Eagles more offense
inside, while Pecos' pressing defense allowed the Eagles to
score early and often off Crane turnovers.

"He was on fire," Eagles' coach Mike Sadler said. "He was
hot from inside and outside."

Crane was without several players still involved with their
football team in the Class 3A playoffs, but still had a size
advantage inside against Pecos. But where that problem had
proved fatal in losses last week to Fort Stockton and Odessa
High, the addition of Navarette gave Pecos enough quickness
to get past Crane's defenders.

Along with the added scoring inside, Pecos also hit nine
times from 3-point range, two by Navarette and three by
Jeremy Herrera and Frank Perea, who bounced back after a
three-point game against Odessa High last Saturday.

Oscar Luna put Pecos ahead to stay at 4-2 with a lay-up in
the opening period, which also began a 13-2 run by Pecos
that includes 3s from Perea, Navarette and Herrera. Crane
cut the lead to 15-8 as the period ended, but a three-point
play by Mark Marquez opened the second quarter and gave the
Eagles back a double-digit lead.

That margin would expand to as many as 25 points in the
second quarter, as the Cranes wouldn't score until Justin
Carrasco hit a pair of free throws with less than two
minutes left in the half. That stopped a 16-0 run by the
Eagles that began with Marquez and included three straight
steals by the Eagles, tow leading to lay-ups by Luna and
Navarette.

"Our pressing defense came through for us. We played great
defense, especially the wings, and our posts got back on
defense," Sadler said.

Manuel Rodriguez' basket cut the lead to 35-12 at the half,
and Crane would score the first four points of the third
period before Navarette hit from inside, and Perea and Luna
followed with 3-pointers to make it 43-16. The lead would
grow to 37 points by the end of the period, with Navarette
scoring seven points down the stretch and Perea and Luna
also adding baskets.

Sadler was able to alternate his starters and reserves
throughout the game, and the subs saw most of the action in
the final period. Orlando Matta had a lay-up off a steal in
the quarter while Roy Marta scored off an assist from
Richard Rodriguez and added a free throw.

The win lifted Pecos' season record to 2-3 going into the
West Texas Shootout at Crane. Because the tournament has
been squeezed into two days, due to the Cranes' football
playoff game on Saturday, the Eagles open up with an 8 a.m.
game Thursday against the McCamey Badgers. A win would put
them into a 5 p.m. game Thursday against either Fort
Stockton or Kermit, while a loss would put Pecos in the 3:30
p.m. consolation game versus either the Panthers or
Yellowjackets.

Pecos' press progresses despite 54-41 loss

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Dec. 2 -- There were signs of life, but still too
many mistakes and bad shots from the Pecos Eagle girls
Tuesday night, as they were kept winless on the season by
the Crane Golden Cranes.

Crane jumped out to an 11-2 first period lead, widened it
to as much as 17 in the second period, then held off a
couple of Pecos comeback efforts in the final periods to win
by a 54-41 final score at the Pecos High School gym.

"I think they're feeling good about themselves, because
they know they're improving," said Eagles' coach Brian
Williams. "The people who come out and see us can see the
improvement, but we're mostly sophomore girls out there and
they're going to make some mistakes."

"Tonight was the first time the press started clicking. I
don't know how many steals we had off the press, but I know
we had several," the Eagles' coach said.

Pecos' press had two good stretches, midway through the
third period and late in the fourth quarter. Down 31-16, the
Eagles scored twice off steals in an 8-2 run that got them
to within 33-24, then scored seven straight points, five off
the press, to cut Crane's 51-34 lead to 51-41.

In-between though, Crane's guards Yvonne Moore and Kristen
Heredia were able to keep control of the game, leading a
balanced attack that saw no player score more than nine
points. Heredia and Cristen Dungan got early baskets that
lifted the Cranes to their 11-2 lead, while Moore and
Heredia got inside for baskets in the third period to stop
the Eagles' run and lift Crane back to a 40-24 lead by the
time the quarter ended.

Sophomore post Philonicus Fobbs had her best game so far
this season, scoring 12 points, second to Shaye Lara's 13.
"Philonicus came in and did a good job in the low post, but
right now she gets winded," Williams said. "We're going to
have to get ourselves in better shape."

Lara had three baskets off steals as part of her 13 points,
and while the Eagles didn't give up as many second chance
baskets as in some of their earlier games, they still missed
a number of lay-ups that allowed Crane to pull away. Pecos
also hurt themselves with a 5-for-17 night at the foul line,
though Crane struggled there as well, going 12-for-35.

"We're going to work real hard on our rebound positioning
and on our shooting and shooting free throws Wednesday,"
said Williams, whose team fell to 0-5 going into the West
Texas Shootout at Crane on Thursday.

Because of the Cranes' Class 3A football playoff game on
Saturday, the tournament has been crushed down into a
two-day affair. The Eagles open with a 2 p.m. game Thursday
against Reagan County, and will either face Fort Davis or
Crane at 7 or 8 p.m. that night in the consolation or
winner's bracket.

The Eagles are part of a 12-team tournament in Crane, eight
in the other half of the bracket. McCamey faces Ozona, El
Paso Ysleta plays Seminole, Monahans takes on Abernathy and
Presidio meets Fort Stockton in the other tournament
openers.

Crane also won Tuesday's freshman game, 53-43, while the JV
also lost to the Cranes. Mireya Medrano led the ninth
graders with 25 points, while the final score and
high-scorers were not available for the JV game.

CRANE (54)
Cardena 1 0-0 2; Moore 3 3-6 9; Rizo 2 0-0 4; Dungan 2 1-5
5; Abbott 1 2-7 4; Payan 2 0-0 4; Johnson 2 0-0 4; Esparza 2
0-0 4; Heredia 4 1-4 9; Bates 2 1-2 5; Sanchez 0 1-2 1;
Kiker 0 3-9 3. Totals 21 12-35 54.

PECOS (41)
Lara 6 1-4 13; Marquez 1 0-0 2; Garcia 1 0-3 2; Molinar 0
0-0 0; Salcido 1 0-0 2; Arenivas 3 1-2 7; Levario 0 2-2 2;
Hathorn 0 1-3 1; Fobbs 6 0-3 12. Totals 18 5-17 41.

Crane 13 13 14 14 --54
Pecos 4 7 15 15 --41
Three-point goals: None. Fouled out: Pecos, Levario,
Hathorn. Total fouls: Crane 18, Pecos 24.



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Pecos Enterprise
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