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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Eagles use strong start to down Blue Devils
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
Curfew apparently was at about 9 p.m. Tuesday for the Pecos Eagles'
offense, in their game against the Presidio Blue Devils. But in the 75
or so minutes before that, the Eagles made enough noise to build up a
big lead on the way to a non-district win over their new district rivals.
The Eagles scored 51 points in a little over 2½ quarters on Tuesday
night, in the girls' home basketball opener at the Pecos High School gym,
then managed only seven points over the game's final 10 minutes, giving the
Blue Devils a chance to cut into Pecos' 21-point lead. But after cutting
seven points off that margin early in the final period, Presidio was only
able to get one point closer the rest of the way and the Eagles came away
with their second straight win, by a 44-38 final score.
"We need to work on keeping our focus and keeping our poise. Some of them
want to go 100 miles per hour all the time," said Eagles' coach Veronica
Valenzuela. "That's why I went back into the man (defense) in the fourth
quarter, to try and get them back into the game."
However, she said the game was still the Eagles' best of the young season.
"At least we played three quarters. In the last two games we just played
the last two quarters. If we can ever play the entire game, we'll be OK."
Hot shooting helped the Eagles build their lead in the opening periods,
especially by junior Leslie Rodriguez. She found openings inside to score
16 first half points, including the first 10 points of the game for Pecos,
as the Eagles built a 10-2 lead.
Presidio's senior post Karla Garcia would hit a couple of lay-ups and
two foul shots late in the period, cutting the lead to 12-9 at one point
before a Jessica Martinez free throw and another basket by Rodriguez off
a pass from Martinez widened the margin to 15-9 at the end of the period.
Pecos' Danielle Garcia would hit a couple of shots early in the second
period, including one that gave the Eagles their first double-digit lead,
at 23-13. The margin would grow to as much as 16 in the period, at 34-18
when Stephanie Herrera hit Rodriguez with a full-court pass off an inbounds
play, and lead by 14 at halftime, 36-22.
Pecos would get a couple of baskets in the third period off steals, and
took their biggest lead at 51-30 on a lane jumper by Herrera off a scramble
inside. But the Eagles would manage just two more baskets in the game, on
a Herrera lay-up off a pass from Garcia and a Martinez lay-up off a pass
from Herrera with about two minutes to play.
Presidio was able to cut the lead to 54-40 with just under four minutes
remaining, but Karla Garcia then missed on two chances from the foul line
and followed that up by getting whistled for a technical foul and getting
ejected after throwing an elbow at Rodriguez on a rebound fight near the
Blue Devils' basket.
Aside from maintaining intensity, Valenzuela said rebounding was one of
the other things the Eagles need to work on after Tuesday's game. "We need
to work on blocking out better, because we only got one shot each time down,"
she said."
Rodriguez ended up with 22 points to lead all scorers, while Danielle
Garcia had 12 for the Eagles, who are 2-1 on the season. Karla Garcia had
13 before being ejected to top Presidio, which will be back in Pecos for
a District 4-3A game on Jan. 14, and then host the Eagles in district play
on Jan. 31.
Pecos' next game is this coming Tuesday at home against Van Horn, who
the Eagles defeated last Friday on the road by a 50-33 final score. Presidio
edged Pecos in Tuesday's junior varsity game, 31-30. Vanessa Valeriano led
the JV with seven points.
PRESIDIO (44)
Medrano 2 0-0 5; Chavez 3 0-0 7; Ramirez 0 3-4 3; Tellez 0 0-0 0; Lujan
1 2-2 4; Carrasco 3 2-4 8; Tavarez 1 0-0 2; Garcia 5 3-6 13; Samaniego 1
0-0 2. Totals 16 10-16 44.
PECOS (58)
Rodriguez 10 1-2 22; Franco 0 0-2 0; Ornelas 1 0-0 2; Mendoza 0 0-0 0;
Arreguy 0 0-0 0; Herrera 3 3-6 9; Martinez 2 1-2 5; V. Garcia 1 0-1 2; D.
Garcia 6 0-1 12; Baez 0 0-0 0; Terry 3 0-2 6. Totals 26 5-16 58.
Presidio 9 13 12 10 _ 44
Pecos 15 21 16 7 _ 58
Three-point goals: Presidio 2 (Medrano, Chavez), Pecos 1 (Rodriguez).
Technical foul: Presidio, Garcia. Fouled out: Presidio, Garcia. Total fouls:
Presidio 17, Pecos 15.
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
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Copyright 2002 by Pecos Enterprise
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