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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Pecos wins Eagle fight at Wink tourney
The Pecos Eagles basketball team didn’t have many bodies on Saturday, for the consolation final against the Seagraves Eagles at the Oil Patch Tournament in Wink. But they also didn’t have many turnovers while putting in a lot of 3-pointers, as they closed out the tournament with their best game of the season.
The Eagles poured in 17 points in the final four minutes of the first period, hit nine 3-pointers on the day and got strong guard play and rebounding, as they jumped out to a 15-point halftime lead and ended up beating Seagraves by a 68-37 final score.
The win came after Pecos opened the tournament with a 47-42 loss to the Rankin Red Devils, then downed the Jal Panthers for the second time this season in the tournament’s consolation semifinals, 37-26. The 68 points was the most by the Eagles this season, as all seven available players for Pecos scored at least four points.
“Our point guards have been our weakest spot, but they played best today, and our guards also rebounded well,” said Eagles’ coach Chaun Brooks. Jeremy Rodriguez broke an early game drought for both teams with a lay-up and a 3-pointer and finished with a game-high 16, while Mark Molina had 11 and picked up assists on Rodriguez’s three, along with a couple of 3-pointers later in the quarter by Lucas Macha, who finished with 15.
Pecos trailed only once in the game, at 2-1 on a lay-up by Kenny Griffin. But that came with over three minutes gone in the period, and while the Eagles would heat up, their Eagle counterparts would manage just five more points in the period. Pecos would go up 11-2 and ended the period up 18-7 on a basket by Daniel Reyes and two foul shots by Rodriguez.
Seagraves would lose one of their starters early in the second period when Demarcus David was whistled for a technical foul and ejected. Pecos was up by eight at that point after a lay-up by David, and would outscore Seagraves 9-2 the rest of the period.
Anthony Franco would hit a 3 for Seagraves to start the second half, cutting the lead to 12, but Reyes then connected on a lay-up off a Rodriguez assist, and Molina followed with a 3-pointer to up the margin to 17. Macha would also hit from behind the line a few minutes later, Justo Dominguez and Chris Garnto would hit jumpers and Molina would hit another 3 after a Franco 3-pointer, and Pecos would lead by 18 after three periods.
Rodriguez and Garnto would finish up the Eagles’ 3-point bombardment in the final period, while the two and Reyes would also hit lay-ups to increase the lead to 28 in the first four minutes of the final period. Pecos’ biggest lead of 32 points would come with about a minute left in the game.
“We were shootingt the ball tonight from the outside, but we were also making more lay-ups,” Brooks said. The Eagles did have one streak in the third period where they missed several in a row from outside, but he said, “We were moving the ball so well against their zone and the 3s were wide open, it was too hard to refuse, plus we made a couple just inside the line.”
Reyes and Garnto had eight points apiece for Pecos, while Griffin’s eight was high for Seagraves. Both saw more action, due to the absence of starting post Victor Mondragon and forward Francisco Ornelas. “Daniel Reyes’ defese has gotten 75 percent better from Tuesday to Thursday, which has resulted in his increased playing time,” Brooks said.
In Friday’s win over Jal, the Eagles scored 19 fewer points than they did two weeks ago in a 56-36 win on the Panthers’ home court and trailed 12-11 at the half. But Jal managed only six points in each of the first three quarters and one eight in the final period, while the Eagles put in 15 points in the third period and added 11 more in the final quarter.
Molina led Pecos in scoring with 14, while Macha had 13. Rodney Sheets led the Panthers with 10.
On Thursday, Rankin owned the second and fourth quarters, outscoring Pecos before halftime 8-1 to take a 17-11 lead. Pecos followed up its one-point period by scoring 22 points in the third quarter, cutting the Red Devils’ lead to one before Rankin put things away in the final period. The Red Devils also outscored the Eagles 17-5 from the foul line in the game.
Macha was the lone Pecos player in double figures with 13 points, while Jason Martinez’s 11 points led the Red Devils, who lost to eventual tournament champion Grady in the semifinals.
The 2-1 weekend improved the Eagles’ record to 4-7 going into Tuesday night’s trip to Coahoma to face the Buffaloes. Following that, Pecos will face Kermit on Thursday, in the opening round of the Fort Stockton Invitational Tournament.
Pecos boys grab 1st at Seminole meet
The Pecos Eagle boys swim team had a fuller lineup on Saturday and came away with first place by a wide margin at the Seminole Invitational, while Pecos’ girls were a little shorter of people and ended up in fourth place out of 11 teams, but first among the Texas schools entered in the meet.
After placing third without all their swimmers in their previous meet at Monahans before Thanksgiving, the boys scored 172 points to beat out Andrews for first by a 61-point margin. The Mustangs finished with 111 points while Carlsbad was next with 72 points. On the girls’ side, Hobbs, Clovis and Carlsbad claimed the top three spots, with Hobbs scoring 150 points for first, Clovis 105 for second and the Cavegirls edging the Eagles by five points for third, 62 points to 57.
Because Seminole’s pool is metric, Eagles’ coach Terri Morse said the times weren’t comparable to the other pools in the district, which are 25-yard lengths, but she said, “I think our times were a little on the slow side compared to what I would have liked to have seen.
“Some of the boys had a pretty good meet, but a lot of them were flat for some reason,” she said. “We’ve been working pretty hard, and have started wearing drags in practice. I don’t know if that made a difference or not.”
The boys got wins from Matthew Florez, Matt Oglesby, Kyle Winkles and Josh Elliott in the 200 medley relay, with a 2:00.93 metric time, and in the 400 meter freestyle relay, with a time of 4:01.19. Pecos’ ‘B’ team of Luke Serrano, Frankie Morin, Hector Roman and Derek Teague placed fourth in that race, while Brian Carrasco, Oscar Machuca, Adam, Medina and Gus Mendoza were fifth as the 200 medley ‘B’ relay team. In the 200-meter freestyle relay, Florez, Morin, Serrano and Teague placed third, while the ‘B’ relay of Roman, Carrasco, Mendoza and Austin Vernon was sixth.
Individually, Winkles won the 50 meter freestyle with a 25.63 time and won the 100 free with a 58.35 time, beating Florez by .32 second; Oglesby took the 100 meter butterfly with a 1:03.94 time, and Elliott won the 100 backstroke with a 1:07.31 time, with Morin placing third. Oglesby also was second in the 200-meter medley and Elliott was third in the 100 fly, and Serrano had Pecos’ other medal on Saturday, with a third in the 500-meter freestyle, edging out Mendoza by .15 second. On Friday, Roman picked up a second place medal in the 1-meter diving competition.
In other races, Morin placed fifth, Mendoza seventh and Navarro eighth in the 200 freestyle; Serrano was seventh, Carrasco 10th and Machuca 17th in the 200 medley; Teague was seventh and Vernon 10th in the 50 free; Medina was ninth in the 100 fly; Roman was sixth and Vernon 11th in the 100 free; Navarro was eighth and Medina 11th in the 500 free, and Teague was fourth, Carrasco ninth and Machuca 10th in the 100 meter breaststroke.
The girls did pick up one medal on the day, from Anatalia Hernandez, who took third in the 200 freestyle, while teammate Niki Lindemann placed fourth. The 200-medley relay team also just missed a medal by placing fourth, with Stephanie Lucas, Cassandra Mata, Hernandez and Cynthia Marmolejo, Mata took fourth in the 200 individual medley
Morse said Mata and Jessica Dickenson weren’t expected to swim going into the weekend after being sick earlier in the week, but neither had been scratched from their events and were able to compete.
“In spite of not having everyone working out, we were able to finish there (fourth place), and we should have beaten out Carlsbad and Clovis, if we had had our relays where they should have been and the kids had been working out,” Morse said.
Hernandez also had a fifth place in the 100 meter butterfly, Adriana Roman was fifth in the 500 free, the 200 free relay of Roman, Lindemann, Marmolejo and Neyva Rodriguez was fifth, as was the 400 freestyle relay team of Hernandez, Roman, Lindemann and Rodriguez. In the other events, Roman was sixth and Jessica Dickenson 10th in the 200 medley; Neyva Rodriguez was 11th and Brittanie Rodriguez 31st in the 50 free; Lucas was eighth in the 100 fly; Lindemann was 10th and Neyva Rodriguez 12th in the 100 free; Marmolejo was ninth in the 500 free and 10th in the 100 backstroke, with Lucas 13th and Brittanie Rodriguez 13th; and Mata was fifth and Dickenson 11th in the 100 meter breaststroke.
The Eagles have one more meet before the Christmas holidays, this coming weekend at the Abilene Wylie Invitational. After Christmas, they have only one meet in January, the Lubbock Invitational, before District 4-4A competition set for the end of the month in Monahans.
Cards deal Eagles setback in consolation finals
Front line scoring and fewer backcourt turnovers were what Pecos Eagles’ coach Debbi Garcia was looking for going into the Oil Patch Invitational in Wink this past weekend, and the Eagles got it in one game and for one quarter of another. But during the other seven quarters of play scoring points was a problem for the Eagles.
The Eagles managed just nine field goals on Thursday against the Rankin Red Devils and only one point in the first quarter. They fell behind early by 10, trailed by nine after three quarters and then saw Rankin pull away in the final period for a 52-25 victory.
On Friday, Eagles’ post Chantel Mazone had more field goals by herself than the entire Pecos team had the day before. The senior hit 10 as part of a game-high 22 points against the Jal Panthers, as this time it was the Eagles who jumped out to an early lead and then pulled away in the final period, for a 48-28 victory.
That put Pecos into Saturday’s consolation finals against the Eunice Cardinals, and Mazone would score six of Pecos’ eight points in the first period, which ended with the Eagles and Cardinals tied. But Mazone would score just once more the rest of the way, before leaving in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury, and the Eagles didn’t find another inside scorer while running into problems against the Cardinals’ full-court press, as Eunice went up by nine at the half and went on to win by a 45-34 final score.
“We didn’t want to go inside and had too many turnovers,” Garcia said. “We got out there and tried to start forcing the ball into her (Mazone) when she was double and triple-teamed.”
Eunice pushed the ball upcourt throughout the game, but missed on several fast break attempts in the opening period, while the Eagles were able to get the ball inside to Mazone before the Cardinals changed up their offense. Mazone’s replacement, Brittany Rodriguez, hit a turn-around jumper early in the second period to give Pecos what turned out to be their last lead, at 14-13, before a basket by Kynai Davidson put the Cardinals ahead to stay.
Jenny Pearson followed with a pair of foul shots and Tiffany Parker added a basket for a 19-14 lead. Jasmine Rayos’ lay-up broke that streak, but the Cardinals then scored the final six points of the half to take a nine-point lead.
Several of the baskets came off steals, and most of those came from Pecos’ problems inbounding the ball. “We had problems with the press in the first half,” Garcia said, “They still want to run away from it. When you say ‘go to the ball’ they’re trying to go away from it.
“Then when we broke it in the second half, we didn’t take advantage,” she added. Pecos did open the third quarter with a basket by Gabby Garcia off a fast break, but missed a number of fast break lay-ups during the quarter. Parker would hit a foul line jumper after Garcia’s basket, Sooky Garcia hit from 3-point range after that and Nikita Pickerel then scored off a steal to give the Cardinals a 14-point lead.
A foul shot by Rayos and baskets by Adrianna Armendariz and Amalie Herrera would cut that margin in half with three minutes left in the quarter, but seven points would be as close as the Eagles would get. That’s the margin they were also down by when Mazone fell and twisted her ankle early in the final period, and post Edna Orozco would then hit a pair of lay-ups over the next two minutes to widen the lead back to 11 points.
Eunice’s Garcia ended up as the high scorer on the day with 11 points, while Mazone’s eight led Pecos.
The win over Jal was the second for the Eagles this season against the Panthers. They beat them in Jal back on Nov. 28, and a game where they built up an eight-point lead after one period and ended up winning by a 44-32 score.
The first three quarters of Friday’s game was similar, though Pecos was able to get more scoring out of Mazone, who had 10 in the first meeting. Pecos led 11-4 after one period, and maintained their lead through the middle periods despite 8-for-26 foul shooting, than outscored Jal 17-5 in the final period.
Armendariz’s seven points was next high for the Eagles, while the Panthers got 13 points from Brittany Emerson.
Mazone and Garcia had eight and Armendariz six against Rankin, but Claire Weinacht was the only other Pecos player to score. The Red Devils got 13 points from guard Kylee Self to lead the way their win. Rankin lost to Grady in their semifinal game on Friday, and Grady would defeat Crane on Saturday to win the tournament title.
The Eagles went 1-2 for the second tournament in a row and are 4-6 going into their game on Tuesday at Big Spring against the Steers, who they edged in the opening round of the Sandhills Tournament on Dec. 1 by a 45-43 score.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 432-445-5475, FAX 432-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 2003-04 by Pecos Enterprise
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