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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, December 7, 2004
Pecos seeks 2nd straight win after beating Snyder
The Pecos Eagle boys’ basketball team was set to make their second attempt at winning their second straight game of the season on Monday night, as they took on the Midland Christian Mustangs after going 1-2 this past weekend at the Gym Bice Tournament in Andrews.
The Eagles were beaten badly in their opening game, losing to the host Mustangs by a 79-18 final score, and things didn’t get much better the following day, when they were beaten by El Paso Americus, 73-24. But the Eagles were able to pull out a win in the tournament’s ninth place game, as they edged Snyder by a 43-41 score.
While the Tigers were shorthanded, with players still involved in the Class 3A football playoffs, the Eagles also were minus Ricardo Morales and Josh Anchondo, who coach Art Welborn said he sat down for disciplinary reasons, leaving them with just eight players for Saturday’s game.
“We just rode Saul (Pina)’s back that game,” he said, as the senior finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and seven steals in the victory , which improved Pecos to 2-6 on the season.
Welborn said the Tigers had a chance to tie or win the game in their final possession. “They had the ball with about 12 second left and got off a shot with about a second left, but it wasn’t a good one. We played real good defense at the end,” he said.
“Hopefully if we’re in close games now they’ll know how to play,” Welborn said.
Things didn’t go as well on Thursday or Friday for Pecos, though the Eagles’ coach said his team started off all right against Andrews.
“We played well in the first quarter and for half the second quarter against Andrews. It was only 18-10 against the first quarter, and we had missed a couple of lay-ups,” Welborn said. “We broke their press, but they were too much for us inside. After they stopped pressing we didn’t score.”
In the loss to Del Valle, Welborn said, “We didn’t do anything right. After the first quarter is was 17-0 and it went downhill from there.”
Pina led the Eagles in scoring in the loss to the Conquistadors, while against the Mustangs, four points each by Morales and Anchondo was the most any Pecos player managed.
Andrews went on to beat Pecos’ new district rival, Lamesa, in the tournament semifinals by a 78-40 score, then lost the title game to El Paso Americus, 50-45. Del Valle won consolation over Fort Hancock on Saturday, 65-43.
Midland Christian, the Eagles’ Monday opponent, comes into the game with a 5-1 record, after placing third in this past weekend’s Yoakum County Tournament in Denver City. They defeated Ozona by a 70-57 score on Saturday after a semifinal loss to Pecos’ former district rival, El Paso Mountain View, 43-34.
Following Monday’s game, the Eagles will be in the Sandhills Tournament beginning on Thursday, while the junior varsity team will host their own tournament this Thursday through Saturday at the Pecos High School gym.
Eagles get closer t 1st win of year against Tors
Coming close to beating one of their new District 3-3A rivals despite missing several players was the best thing that came out of this past weekend’s Benny Boyd Tournament in Lamesa for the Pecos Eagle girls’ basketball team.
The Eagles went 0-3 in the tournament, losing their opener on Thursday to 11th-ranked Snyder, 65-28, and then falling to Sundown on Friday, 58-24. But coach Lisa Lowery said things were better on Saturday in the seventh place game against the host Golden Tornadoes, even though Lamesa came away with a 65-53 victory.
The loses dropped Pecos to 0-7 on the season going into their Tuesday night home game against the Alpine Bucks, with the JV at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 6:30 p.m. The Eagles’ next game will be at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, when they face the Iraan Braves in the opening round of the Stanton Hooptown Classic.
“We didn’t have many girls,” Lowery said of Saturday’s match-up with Lamesa. “We had some taking their SAT tests, and Chantell (Mazone) was sick. I think if we had had her inside, they wouldn’t have been able to pin us underneath the way they did.”
The Eagles’ other post, Adriana Armendariz, had a season-high 23 points, while Danielle Garcia added 18 for the Eagles, who struggled at the outset against Lamesa the same way they had in their losses to Snyder and Sundown.
“We were only down at the half by five points,” Lowery said, despite trailing after one period by a 16-2 score. But the Tors were able to build back a double-digit margin in the third period, and played even with the Eagles in the final quarter.
“At the first of the game and at the start of the (second) half we have trouble getting started,” said Lowery. “We’re just not being aggressive enough.”
No Lamesa player fouled out, but the Tornadoes as a team committed 28 fouls in the game, compared to only eight for the Eagles.
The score was far better than a year ago against the Tors, when Lamesa scored 33 straight points on the way to a 69-19 win over Pecos. The teams weren’t district rivals then, but will face each other twice in district this season, with the Eagles going back to Lamesa for the first meeting on Jan. 11.
The Eagles were down after one period by about the same margins in their opening games of the tournament as they were against Lamesa. The difference was things got worse instead of better. They trailed Snyder 19-2 after one period and were down at the half by a 41-8 score, and trailed Sundown by a 36-7 margin after two periods.
“The difference between the first two games and Saturday was we played more like a team. We looked inside against Lamesa,” Lowery said. “They get behind (against Snyder) and think they have to do more themselves and don’t look for the others. They’re dribbling the ball way too long and by the time they pick the ball up they’re guarding us,”
Garcia and Mazone each scored eight points to lead the Eagles against the Tigers, while Garcia had 11 in the loss on Friday against Sundown.
“They’re a good team, but we just turned the ball over too much,” said Lowery, who added that Pecos again wasn’t aggressive enough against the Roughnecks, who traditionally are among the top small school basketball teams in the state.
“If they pin us, we just can’t get around,” she said. “We’re never picking up more than two fouls (per player) in a game, and really your players should end up with about three fouls if they’re being aggressive.”
Tuesday’s game was to have been the second meeting between the Eagles and Bucks this season, but Alpine cancelled the team’s scheduled game on Nov. 12 due to a conflict with the boys’ football playoffs.
Balmorhea girls get consolation at tournament
The Balmorhea Bear girls’ basketball team came away with the consolation title over the weekend at the Longhorn Classic Basketball Tournament, while Balmorhea’s boys fell in the consolation finals, after both teams lost their tournament openers on Thursday and came back with victories the following day.
The girls got 31 points from Lorissa Rodriguez in their 70-49 win over Grandfalls-Royalty in the consolation finals on Saturday, after she led Balmorhea with 19 points in their opening round 54-35 loss to Marfa. In between, the Bears scored a 38-26 victory over Marathon, with Savannah Matta leading the way with 15 points.
Marfa ended up advancing to the tournament title game, where they were beaten by Comstock, 41-39.
Balmorhea’s boys also lost to Marfa and defeated Marathon in their first two tournament contests. The Bears were edged by the Shorthorns in their opener, 57-53, then came back to rout the Mustangs, 91-29, before falling in the consolation game by a 74-63 final score.
Brandon Mendoza scored 19 against Marfa and 15 against Comstock, while Justin Machuca scored 17 to lead a group of Bears in double figures in their win over Marathon.
The Bears go right back to Buena Vista for their next games, on Tuesday evening, then travel to the Van Horn Tournament this coming Thursday. With the opening of their new gym, Balmorhea will host its first-ever varsity tournament the following weekend, to close out their pre-Christmas basketball schedule.
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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