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Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Rec dept. still registering for youth hoops
The Reeves County Community Sports and Recreation Department is continuing to sign up boys and girls in the winter pee-wee basketball program through the end of December.
The league is open to children between 5 years old and those currently in sixth grade. Last Friday was the deadline to sign up for the pre-season fundamentals program, but boys and girls can still sign up from now through Dec. 30 for league play.
Parents can pick up enrollment forms at the RCCRD office in the old Pecos High School gym during office hours, from 4 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, from 4 to 6 p.m. on Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Registration fee is $10 per player, and returned forms must have both parents’ signatures and be accompanied by a birth certificate.
For further information, call the RCCRD office at 447-9776.
Pecos girls rally, then fall, at Monahans
The Pecos Eagles fell behind and lost their leading scorer in the first period of Friday night’s District 3-3A girls’ basketball game in Monahans. But the Eagles were able to get things back together in the second quarter, rallying from a 14-4 deficit to tie the game at 18-all at halftime.
However, after Chantell Mazone opened the third period with a lay-up for a 20-18 Eagle lead, the Loboes then reeled off 12 straight point to go ahead by a 32-20 margin, and were never up by less than seven the rest of the way, as Monahans scored a 47-37 victory in Pecos’ district road opener.
The Eagles had one more chance before the holiday break to get their first district win of the year, when they hosted Presidio in a 1:30 p.m. game on Monday. Pecos earned their first win of the 2005-06 season back in November in a non-district game at Presidio, when they edged the Blue Devils by a 32-31 score.
“We have struggled with scoring,” said Eagles’ coach Lisa Lowery, who had to play the final three periods minus junior Adriana Armendariz, who sprained her ankle in the opening period. “We get some good looks, but we are making too many mental mistakes and turnovers. We had it going and just shot ourselves in the foot, but Monahans has a good team too.”
With Armendariz out, the Eagles went to Mazone, who led Pecos’ second period comeback, scoring six of her 17 points in the quarter. That included a game-tying and go-ahead lay-up in the second period, following a 3-point jumper by Olga Mendoza and a lay-up by Vanessa Valeriano.
Monahans would re-tie the game just prior to halftime, and after Mazone gave Pecos what turned out to be their last lead to start the second quarter, Monahans got a basket by Chelsea Cartwright to even the score at 20-20, and Kim Madrid followed with a lay-up, the first of her eight points during the Loboes’ 12-0 run. She added a couple of jumpers and another lay-up off a steal, while Catherine Cutbirth also scored before Mazone broke the streak with a lay-up to make it 30-22.
The Eagles did cut the margin at one point to seven, at 32-25, but Jordan Latham would hit on a pair of lay-ups and two foul shots early in the final period to get Monahans’ lead back to double-digits.
“We ran the floor well, and had 37 rebounds against a bigger Pecos team, I am very pleased to be 2-0 in District at this stage,” said Loboes’ coach Treasure Thaggard, whose team opened 3-3A play with a win over Presidio.
“We are young and inexperienced, and so we get frustrated at times. We are improving and I think headed in the right direction,” said Lowery, whose team fell to 3-11 with their loss at Monahans.
Presidio was idle on Friday, following their district-opening loss to the Loboes. Armendariz led Pecos with 11 points in their November victory over the Blue Devils.
Eagles can’t get shots to sink in Wink
It took the Pecos Eagles a little under three quarters to finally find the range with their outside shots on Friday night, which was 2 1/2 quarters longer than it took Wink’s Ryan Raska to find his range.
The Eagles clanged shots for most of the night, going without a field goal for the entire second quarter and scoring just nine points in the first half of their game against the Wildcats. Raska, meanwhile, took advantage of the early absence of Eagles’ post Luptio Bustamantes to score the game’s first six points, and kept scoring the rest of the game, finishing with 34, as Wink held off a fourth quarter Pecos comeback and went on to a 65-43 win.
“When we get down there, we don’t know what to do,” said Eagles’ coach Art Wellborn of his team’s offensive effort in their final pre-district game. District 3-3A play for Pecos started at 3 p.m. on Monday, when they hosted the Presidio Blue Devils. It’s the last game of 2005 for the Eagles, who’ll be off until Jan. 3, when they travel to Andrews.
Bustamantes didn’t start the game after showing up late for the trip to Wink, and without him in the lineup on defense, the Eagles had no one to match up against Raska on defense. He scored on a pass from Clay Fernandes to open the game, then went over the smaller Eagle front line for a pair of rebound lay-ups. Coty Carroll and Raska would then score off steals to make it 10-0 before the Eagles finally got on the scoreboard, on a lay-up by Felix Salcido.
Wink would lead at the end of the first period by a 20-7 margin, before Pecos started the second quarter with a pair of free throws by Miguel Estrada at the 7:18 mark. That turned out to be the last points of the half for the Eagles, who were unable to hit from anywhere on the court. Meanwhile, the Wildcats had problems of their own with turnovers during the quarter, but did get nine points in the quarter, five by Raska, to up their lead to 29-9.
“We shot 3-for-19 and had 14 turnovers in the first half. That’s not going to win too many basketball games,” Wellborn said.
Raska also started the third period with a lay-up, though Bustamantes - who entered the game late in the first quarter - finally found his shooting range from in-close during the period, scoring 10 points, as the Eagles began cutting into Wink’s lead. The margin was still 17 points going into the fourth quarter, but a lay-up and two free throws by Estrada and then a basket by Bustamantes cut the gap to 46-35 with about five minutes to play.
But that would be as close as Pecos would get. Wink’s Marcus Thomas scored on a reverse, and Bustamantes was then called for a questionable offensive foul, before fouling Raska at the other end on a lay-up. The Eagles’ post was then whistled for a technical foul, and the basket and foul shots bumped the lead back up to 17 points with 3:50 to play.
Bustamantes ended up sitting out the final 3:50 after drawing his technical, but led Pecos with 18 points, while Luis Licon had 10 for the Eagles, who dropped to 1-10 on the season going into Monday afternoon’s district opener against Presidio. Wink had no other player in double figures, with Carroll next in scoring for the Wildcats with eight.
Pecos was swept in district play a year ago by Presidio, though the Eagles did come close to beating the Blue Devils at home before falling by four points. “We better get it together for Monday. We’ve got eight seniors, and this is their last hurrah,” Wellborn said.
Pecos did win Friday’s junior varsity game by a 60-36 score. Jeremy Rodriguez led the Eagles with 17 points.
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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