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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Friday, December 10, 2004
Eagles take break to compete in meet
The Pecos Eagles swim team will be competing in their only meet over a six-week period this Friday and Saturday, when they face 11 other teams at the Seminole Invitational.
The Eagles’ last swim meet was two weeks ago at the Monahans Invitational, and their next meet won’t be until Jan. 7, when they go to the Lubbock Invitational. This week, they’ll be trying to improve of their results at Monahans, where both teams were shorthanded, and placed fourth on the girls’ side and eighth in the boys division.
El Paso Chapin was the only Region I-4A rival to finish ahead of Pecos’ girls there, but the boys will be trying to move back in front of three district rivals, Monahans, Andrews and Big Spring, who placed in front of them at the Loboes’ meet.
Coach Terri Morse said the events she’ll have her swimmers in will “basically be the same” as two weeks ago, though she’ll have more entries overall.
“We don’t have enough boys for a ‘B’ relay, but we’ll have a (200 yard) medley ‘B’ and a 400 free ‘’B’ for the girls,” Morse said, though the boys will have an entry in the 1-meter diving for the first time since early November with the return of Dustin Windham.
“We’ve been working pretty hard. We’ve had them swimming with extra drag, so they were pretty worn down last week, but I think they’ve adapted, so we’ll see how they do,” Morse said of this weekend’s meet.
Aside from the Eagles, Indians and the three other district rivals, Fort Stockton, Pampa and Amarillo Caprock are the other Class 4A teams entered in the meet, while three New Mexico teams - Carlsbad, Hobbs and Artesia - round out the 12-team field.
Pecos will have at least one entry in every event this weekend, something they didn’t have in Seminole. The Eagles did get wins on the boys side in their last meet from Kyle Winkles and Matt Oglesby, while the girls’ best finishes at the last meet were by Susan Moore, Teddie Salcido and Catherine Minjarez.
Diving at Seminole is set for 5 p.m. on Friday, while the swimming finals are scheduled for an 11 a.m. start.
Pecos’ turnover troubles continue in loss
Pecos Eagles basketball coach Art Welborn is hoping to get a few players back who will make the Eagles a little bit bigger on the front line in the upcoming weeks. But while that may help with one problem Pecos had Monday night against Midland Christian, the current group of Eagles also has to deal with ball-handling problems that helped the visiting Mustangs to an easy 77-49 victory.
Midland Christian’s Reece Madrid was allowed inside for a series of lay-ups and rebound shots, and scored 16 first half points. But he was shut out in the final two periods, while guard Brantley Foster and forward Lee Sinclair continued to plague Pecos, as the Mustangs used an early full-court press and some second half unforced errors by the Eagles to control the game for all but a small portion of the second quarter.
“We show spurts where we look decent, but then we turn around and give everything back to them,” said Welborn.
Midland’s press resulted in a series of steals in the opening period, and the Mustangs led at one point late in the first quarter by 15 points, at 23-8. The Eagles would then go on an 8-0 run to close out the period and open the second quarter, before Clint Elliott hit a 3-pointer and another steal was turned into a three-point play by Justin Hyde, allowing the Mustangs to widen their margin back out to double-digits.
Madrid would then score 10 of Midland Christian’s final 14 points of the half, which ended with the Mustangs leading by a 43-27 margin. The Eagles had some scoring inside during the first half, from Felix Salcido and Ricardo Morales, but Morales was limited to just one basket in the final two quarters, while Salcido failed to take advantage of his chances at the foul line, as both ended up with eight points on the night.
Miguel Estrada, who only returned to the lineup from a knee injury a week ago, also finished with eight points, But the junior guard struggled to run the offense against the press at times. “Miguel wasn’t like that up in Andrews. Last week, we didn’t have any problem breaking their press,” Welborn said.
Pecos’ other ball-handlers also struggled at times, and as the third quarter opened the Eagles gave the ball away several times against only half court pressure by the Mustangs. Midland Christian scored the first 11 points of the third period to double up the Eagles’ score, and would hold a 33-point lead by the time the period ended, at 65-38.
Most of the final quarter was spent at the foul line; with the Mustangs maintaining at least a 28-point lead the remainder of the way.
Foster ended up leading all scorers with 20 points despite leaving the game late in the third period with an ankle injury. Sinclair had 16 points for Midland Christian, which improved to 6-1 on the season. Pecos fell to 2-7 with their loss, going into their 8 a.m. Thursday game against El Paso Riverside at the Monahans Sandhills Tournament. Riverside is 3-7 on the season after losing by eight points at El Paso Mountain View on Tuesday. Mountain View scored a nine-point win over Midland Christian last Friday in tournament play at Denver City.
Midland Christian also won Monday’s freshman and junior varsity games. They took the ninth grade game, 54-27, and the JV contest, 52-35. Quentin Roman led the freshmen with 11 points and Joseph Train topped the JV scoring with 15.
MIDLAND CHRISTIAN (77)
Foster 8 2-4 20; Culp 0 2-4 2; Beal 3 0-1 6; Hyde 1 3-3 5; Sinclair 6 4-9 16; Doty 0 0-2 0; Elliott 3 1-2 10; Madrid 7 2-2 16; Sweatt 1 0-0 2. Totals 29 14-27 77.
PECOS (49)
Gonzales 0 1-2 1; Jurado 1 1-2 3; Morales 4 0-1 8; Pina 2 3-4 7; Guajardo 1 0-0 2; Licon 2 2-2 6; Anchondo 0 2-4 2; Castillo 0 0-0 0; Estrada 2 3-3 8; Nunez 2 0-3 4; Salcido 3 2-8 8; Macha 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 14-29 49.
Mid. Christian 23 20 25 9 --77
Pecos 12 15 8 14 --49
Three-point goals: Midland Christian 5 (Elliott 3, Foster 2). Fouled out: Midland Christian, Elliott. Pecos, Pina. Total fouls: Midland Christian 25, Pecos 22.
Balmorhea boys get easy win, girls edged
The boys fared better than the girls in Buena Vista on Tuesday night for the Balmorhea Bears, three days after the girls came away with better results on the Longhorns’ home court at Imperial.
Balmorhea’s girls, who won consolation last Saturday the Longhorn Classic, came up a point short against Buena Vista on Tuesday, falling by a 40-39 final score. Meanwhile, the boys, who lost in the tournament consolation finals last weekend, bounced back with an easy 70-33 victory over the Longhorns.
Justin Machuca and Brandon Mendoza both had 18 points to lead the Bears, who scored 32 points in the second period to go out to a 47-15 halftime lead.
In the girls’ game, Balmorhea battled back from a 20-8 deficit after the first period, before falling one point short at the finish. Savannah Matta’s 21 points led the Bears in scoring.
The Bears were scheduled to open up play on Thursday in the Van Horn Tournament, then return home to host the Presidio Blue Devils on Monday. The Bears will be hosting their own tournament for the first time next weekend, at the new Balmorhea High School gym.
Pecos’ slow morning start results in loss
It took the Pecos Eagles almost the entire game to score as many points as t he El Paso Riverside Rangers did in one quarter on Thursday in Monahans, and the result was an opening round loss in the Monahans Sandhills Tournament.
The Eagles were outscored 31-2 in the opening period, and by 15 points the rest of the way, as the Rangers defeated Pecos by a 77-33 margin in the opening game of the three-day double-elimination tournament. Individual scoring for the game was unavailable at press time.
The loss dropped the Eagles to 2-8 on the season, and into a 12:30 p.m. game on Friday against either district rival Lamesa or Levelland in the elimination bracket of the tournament. The loser of that game will end up in a consolation bracket contest on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Pecos’ JV and freshmen teams began play on Thursday in their own tournament, at the Pecos High School gym. The ninth grade squad faced Monahans 9th grade team in their first game Thursday afternoon, while the JV opened with an evening game against Greenwood.
Permian took on Midland Christian, Monahans’ JV faced Odessa’s sophomores, the OHS JV played Presidio and Fort Stockton took on Jal in the other opening games. The winner of that game will face the Pecos-Greenwood winner at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, while the losers face each other at 3 p.m. The Pecos-Monahans winner plays on Friday at 6 p.m. versus OHS or Presidio, while the losers of those games dropped into a 1:30 p.m. consolation quarterfinal contest.
Scoring woes at start, end hurt Eagles
Bad starts have been fairly common for the Pecos Eagle girls’ basketball team this season. There was another one on Tuesday night against the Alpine Bucks, but in this case, it was the bad finish that kept the Eagles winless on the 2004-05 season.
Alpine scored the first 12 points of the game, and held Pecos without a field goal until 36 seconds were left in the opening period. But the Bucks also got themselves into foul trouble along the way and that helped the Eagles go on a 15-2 run of their own to grab a one-point lead midway through the second quarter.
The teams would trade leads twice more, until the Bucks took the lead for good with a couple of baskets to start off the final quarter. But after a jumper by Danielle Garcia got the Eagles to within 34-33 with five minutes remaining, Pecos wouldn’t score another basket for the remainder of the game, and this time, their foul shooting failed to bail them out, as Alpine went on a 12-2 run and ended up with a 46-35 victory.
The loss left Pecos with an 0-7 record going into the opening game of the Stanton Hooptown Classic, at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday against the Iraan Braves. The winner of that game will face the winner of the Presidio-Stanton contest at 6 p.m. on Friday, while the losers will face each other in a consolation bracket quarterfinal match-up on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
“I think a lot of it is confidence. We don’t believe we can pass it from here to here without dribbling over to you,” said Eagles’ coach Lisa Lowery, who added that her team didn’t do a smart job playing with a small lead late in the third period.
“We were up by two and I tried to get them to slow it down and play smart. But then we put up a 3 and threw it away after that, and that just killed us,” she said.
The Eagles didn’t put up many shots in the first period, turning the ball over on Alpine’s end of the court several times. Meanwhile, Bucks’ guard Dee Dee DelaO was able to pass the ball over Pecos’ defense several times for lay-ups by post LaToya Simples during Alpine’s 12-0 start.
The Eagles were able to balance out the height disadvantage a bit after Chantell Mazone came into the game. She also was fouled twice early on and scored the Eagles’ first three points from the foul line, before Amalie Herrera hit a short jumper for their first field goal of the game.
Adriana Armendariz hit another short jumper as the second period opened, while more foul shots by Mazone and Candace Regelman cut the lead to two points. After a Daniella Valenzuela lay-up, the Eagles tied the game on a Garcia basket and two free throws by Lily Valdez, and took their first lead at 15-14 on 1-of-2 foul shooting by Herrera.
“When we got up 15-14, I said that’s the first time we’ve been in the lead since I’ve been head coach in Pecos, “ Lowery said, though the advantage was brief. Alpine responded with six straight points before the Eagles closed the gap to 20-18 at halftime.
Pecos’ next lead would come after a basket and two free throws by Olga Mendoza put Pecos ahead 26-24. Mazone then hit a lay-up for a 28-24 lead, and they were up 30-26 before six straight points by Alpine to close the third period and open t he fourth put the Bucks ahead to stay.
Up by one after Garcia’s fourth quarter basket, the Bucks again took control inside with Mazone out of the game. Cassy Aguilar was fouled on a rebound attempt after two other missed shots by the Bucks. She then missed her two free throws, but the Bucks got the rebound and Aguilar ended up scoring and getting fouled by Regelman, and made her foul shot for a 37-33 lead.
The Eagles then missed three lay-up chances, before the Bucks’ Madison Burns came down and hit the only 3-pointer of the night to make it a 40-33 game. Pecos would get their chances from the line to come back in the closing minutes, but failed to take advantage, going 2-for-8 from the line in the final 3 1/2 minutes of play.
Burns and Brittany Samples with 11 points apiece, led Alpine in scoring, while Mendoza had eight to lead the Eagles, who went to the line 31 times compared with only 13 trips to the line for the Bucks.
Alpine also won Tuesday’s junior varsity game against Pecos, 40-27. Ashley Lucas led Pecos with 13 points. While the varsity goes to Stanton, the JV will be competing in a round-robin tournament at Grandfalls this weekend. They’ll face the host Cowgirls at 11 a.m. on Thursday, and then take on Midland Trinity on Friday.
ALPINE (46)
Ruiz 0 0-0 0; L. Samples 3 0-1 6; Burns 3 4-4 11; DelaO 0 0-1 0; Dominguez 0 0-0 0; Jaharo 0 0-0 0; B. Samples 5 1-1 11; Mendoza 1 0-0 2; Valenzuela 3 0-0 6; Aguilar 3 3-5 9; Ralang 0 0-0 0; Morrow 1 0-1 2. Totals 19 7-13 46.
PECOS (35)
Cr Ortiz 0 0-0 0; Carrasco 0 0-0 0; Garcia 2 0-0 4; Herrera 1 3-6 5; Valdez 0 2-2 2; Ch. Ortiz 1 0-0 2; Mendoza 1 6-9 8; Regelman 0 3-6 3; Armendariz 2 1-2 5; Mazone 1 5-8 7. Totals 8 19-31 35.
Alpine 12 8 8 18 --46
Pecos 6 12 12 5 --35
Three-point goals: Alpine 1 (Burns). Fouled out: Alpine, L. Samples, B. Samples. Total fouls: Alpine 26, Pecos 13.
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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