|
Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Bears run past Longhorns, 79-65
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
For a team that's been used to regular season success, going the
first three weeks of the season with a below .500 record is unusual for
the Balmorhea Bears. So coach Adolfo Garcia was happy to see his team
come through on Tuesday night with a 79-65 homecourt win over the Buena
Vista Longhorns, which helped get the Bears back to .500 in regular
season play.
"It was by far one of our best games of the year," said Garcia,
whose team did place second last weekend at the Buena Vista Tournament,
but were beaten by potential first round playoff rival Dell City in the
finals.
Tuesday night the Bears trailed only once, at 2-0 after a Mark
Williams lay-up. Urban Baeza then hit a 3-pointer to put the Bears up
3-2, and Balmorhea would close out the quarter with a 21-13 lead. The
Longhorns would cut that margin to as little as five points in the
second period and stayed within 10 for most of the third quarter, but
each time the Bears were able to respond and hold off Buena Vista's
comeback attempts.
"I've been trying out different players at different positions. I
think every single game we've had a different line-up," said Garcia. "I
only have two seniors, so I'm still figuring out who my starting lineup
is and who is my second rotation."
The Bears got out to their lead thanks to a series of lay-ups,
mostly by Urban and Keith Baeza. Levon Barragan added a pair of late
baskets in the first period to give Balmorhea an eight-point lead.
Buena Vista would eventually get back to within 29-24 on a Williams
lay-up, but Justin Machuca followed with his own lay-up and Michael
Hernandez hit two free throws to widen the margin back to nine.
Foul problems in the first half hurt both teams. The Bears' A.J.
Garcia was whistled for three quick fouls in the opening period, but
that was offset when Buena Vista point guard Luis Martinez went to the
bench after getting his third foul later in the period, then picked up
his fourth in the second quarter.
In the third period Machuca would hit a pair of 3-pointers and
Barragan would also connect from 3-point range, which helped the Bears
widen a 46-38 lead to 55-41. The Longhorns would cut that back down to
nine as the period ended, but they were never able to get any closer
during the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, after which
baskets by Michael Dominguez, A.J. Garcia and Barragan made it 73-58
Bears and pretty much sealed the victory.
"We've haven't been running until tonight. We finally had a lot of
easy baskets and didn't have to depend so much on our outside shots,"
Adolfo Garcia said. Balmorhea ended up with five players in double
figures in scoring, led by Urban Baeza's 17 points.
"We don't have much size, but we do have quickness, so that's what
I'm trying to get out of them. We have to use our quickness and get a
lot of fast breaks," the Bears' coach added.
Williams topped all scorers with 21 points for Buena Vista, while
Martinez scored 17 despite his early foul difficulties.
Balmorhea's junior varsity boys also won on Tuesday, 44-16 over Big
Bend High School. The varsity's win evened their season record at 4-4
going into the opening round of the Van Horn Tournament. The Bears open
up with a first round game versus Fort Hancock on Friday.
BUENA VISTA (65)
Martinez 5 6-10 17; Williams 9 2-5 21; Pereles 5 1-1 11; Carreon 0
1-2 1; Saldana 0 0-0 0; Mandujano 2 1-2 5; Saver 1 0-0 2; Tarango 4 0-4
8. Totals 26 11-24 65.
BALMORHEA (79)
Rodriguez 5 0-0 10; Machuca 4 0-0 10; K. Baeza 5 0-2 10; Barragan 6
0-2 13; Hernandez 0 4-4 4; Mendoza 1 2-2 4; U. Baeza 7 2-3 17; Vasquez
1 0-0 2; Garcia 4 1-4 9; Tarin 0 0-0 0. Totals 33 9-17 79.
Buena Vista 13 17 16 19 65
Balmorhea 21 16 20 22 79
Three-point goals: Buena Vista 2 (Martinez, Williams), Balmorhea 4
(Machuca 2, U. Baeza, Barragan). Fouled out: None. Total fouls: Buena
Vista 15, Balmorhea 21.
Eagles drop games in Alpine, Snyder
The Pecos Eagle boys weren't able to get their second win in a row
over the Snyder Tigers on Tuesday night in Snyder, while Pecos' girls
suffered their sixth loss in a row, but did fare a lot better than in
their previous five games on Tuesday, in Alpine against the Bucks.
The boys, who defeated Snyder by five points for third place in the
Gym Bice Tournament at Andrews last Saturday, were shorthanded for the
rematch and the Tigers took advantage, running away from Pecos for a
58-29 victory. Meanwhile, the girls, who lost three games in Lamesa
last weekend by between 35 and 50 points, were tied after three periods
with Alpine on Tuesday, only to see the Bucks come away with a 42-39
win.
"I don't know if it's a mental thing or not, but the girls know they
can play with Alpine and they played a lot better," said coach Veronica
Valenzuela.
The Eagles still had their offensive problems, managing just nine
points in the first half, but scored 16 in the third period to tie the
game at 25-all before being outscored by a 17-14 margin in the final
period.
"Offensively, we made a lot more shots, but we still missed a lot of
easy shots under the basket," Valenzuela said. "We ran the press break
better and pushed the ball upcourt and had a girl down at the end of
the floor, but that's when we missed a couple of lay-ups."
She added that the Eagles weren't helped by their 8-for-22 foul
shooting, though the Bucks weren't much better, going 9-for-21 from the
line.
"As far as rebounding goes, we're not where we need to be, but we
looked a lot better. Adriana (Armendariz) did a good job rebounding for
us last night," Valenzuela said.
Danielle Garcia led Pecos with 16 points, and Leslie Rodriguez added
11. Monica Salmon topped Alpine with 16 points. The loss gives Pecos a
1-6 record going into the opening round of the Hooptown Classic in
Stanton on Thursday. They'll face the host Buffaloes in a 5:30 p.m.
match-up.
Flores said the boys' loss in Snyder, "wasn't even close from the
start of the game. We moved much slower than they did. Basically we
looked like we were in slow motion out there."
He said that Josh Anchondo and Bino Barreno didn't make the trip to
Snyder, and both Justin Lara and Oscar Parada were suffering from the
flu. "Justin was really bad. He just went up and down the court a
couple of times before I took him out," Flores said. "Oscar was
suffering from the flu and Tick (Victor Reyes) was coughing up all
through the game, so he wasn't 100 percent."
Scoring totals weren't available, but Flores said Reyes led the
Eagles with eight points.
"We never even put up a fight. From the beginning of the first
quarter we were gasping for air," Flores said.
The loss drops Pecos' record to 3-4 on the season going into the
second of their three regular season tournaments. The Eagles will open
play in the Sandhills Tournament at Monahans with a 2:30 p.m. game
against Amarillo Caprock on Thursday.
Numbers come out right for Balmorhea girls
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
The Balmorhea Bears proved there's strength in numbers Tuesday night
against the Buena Vista Longhorns, in their non-district girls
basketball game at the Balmorhea High School gym.
The Bears jumped out to an eight-point lead after one quarter of
their game against the Longhorns, only to see Buena Vista chip away at
that margin and finally pass Balmorhea late in the third quarter. But
the Longhorns suited up only five players for the game, and after
Crystal Gonzales hit two baskets to give her team a 39-36 lead, she
fouled out of the game with four seconds left in the third quarter.
The Longhorns were still able to keep things close for the first
half of the final period, and trailed by just two points with four
minutes to play. But after Hanna Hanks followed Gonzales to the bench
with her fifth four at the 3:49 mark, the Bears pulled away, scoring 14
of the final 18 points to win by a 59-47 final score.
"We played a very good first quarter, but then we slowed down and
didn't play defense and didn't move the ball on offense," said Bears'
coach Abel Garcia. "We were a little careless and a little lazy."
Larissa Rodriguez had seven of her 16 points in the opening period,
which ended with Balmorhea holding a 17-9 lead, and the Bears were
still up by a 26-18 score just before halftime when Gonzales hit a
lay-up and followed with a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to cut the
margin to three going into the third period.
Balmorhea would jump ahead by six points midway through the third
quarter, at 36-30 on a steal and lay-up by Savannah Matta, but Gonzales
would follow with three baskets, and teammate Bradley Duckett would add
a rebound lay-up and free throw as part of a 9-0 run that put the
Longhorns ahead by three.
Free throws by Trina Jurado and Amber Briceno would tie the game as
the final period began, but even playing with a one-player advantage
the Bears were unable to shake the Longhorns. Buena Vista took its last
lead at 43-41 on a pair of foul shots by Duckett, as Briceno fouled out
of the game, before Balmorhea went ahead for good on lay-ups by Juarez
and Rodriguez.
Even after Hanks fouled out, a lay-up by Duckett made it 48-45 with
two minutes to play. But the 5-on-3 disadvantage was too much for Buena
Vista, as Balmorhea scored on a series of lay-ups over the next minute
to put the game away. Duckett would foul out with 1:05 left and
Balmorhea ahead by 11, and by then Garcia had kept his extra players on
the court out of the action, and the Bears played the final minute of
the game as basically a 2-on-2 match-up.
"It started getting out of hand when we had them outnumbered, so I
kept them out," Garcia said.
Jurado finished with 15 points and Matta had 14 for the Bears, who
improved to 6-3 on the season. Buena Vista was led by Gonzales' 17
points and 14 by Duckett.
The Bears' next game will be in the opening round of the Van Horn
Tournament, against the host Eagles on Friday. Garcia said it's the
second meeting between the two games, with Van Horn winning the opener
by 11 points. Balmorhea placed third this past weekend in tournament
play at Buena Vista.
BUENA VISTA (47)
Huertas 3 2-5 8; Gonzaales 7 2-5 17; Duckett 5 4-7 14; Hanks 3 0-2
8; Graham 0 0-0 0, Totals 18 8-19 47.
BALMORHEA (59)
Jurado 6 1-4 15; C. Briceno 0 0-0 0; Sanchez 0 0-0 0; Lopez 0 0-0 0;
Matta 5 4-15 14; Cook 4 1-2 9; A. Briceno 1 3-6 5; Orosco 0 0-0 0;
Rodriguez 7 2-5 16; Carrasco 1 0-0 0. Totals 23 11-32 59.
Buena Vista 7 16 16 8 47
Balmorhea 17 9 11 22 59
Three-point goals: Buena Vista 3 (Hanks 2, Rodriguez), Balmorhea 2
(Jurado 2). Technical foul: Buena Vista, Coach Hanks. Fouled out: Buena
Vista, Gonzales, Hanks, Duckett. Balmorhea, A. Briceno, Rodriguez.
Total fouls: Buena Vista 21, Balmorhea 20.
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
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2003 by Pecos Enterprise
|
