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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
Tuesday, December 3, 2002
Eagle girls host Van Horn, boys take on Midland High
Van Horn will be trying to avoid their second loss of the season tonight
to the Eagles. So will Midland High, but in their case it won't be their
second one to the Pecos Eagles.
Van Horn's girls will be in Pecos tonight, for a 6:30 p.m. game against
the Eagles, the second meeting of the season for the teams. Meanwhile, up
in Midland, Pecos' boys will be at the Chaparral Center trying to hand the
Bulldogs their second loss in a row, when the teams face each other starting
at 7:30 p.m.
The game will be by far the toughest test of the season for the 2-1 Eagles,
who have been off since last Monday's 56-24 win at Alpine. Midland High,
meanwhile, had won their first five games of the season, none closer than
14 points, until they went up to Hobbs this past Friday and were routed
by that group of Eagles, 118-79.
"I talked to coach (Jack) Stephenson, and he was a little disappointed,
but when a team shoots 72 percent from the field, they're tough to beat,"
said Eagles' coach Joe Flores about Friday's game.
A more normal result for the Bulldogs was last Tuesday's home game against
a future Pecos opponent, Amarillo Caprock. Midland High won that game by
an 83-43 final score, and scored over 100 points in each of their first
three games.
"I talked to a couple of other coaches and they're the same team everyone
is used to seeing. They run and gun up and down the court and press you
at every angle," said Flores. "They don't have anybody over 6-foot-3, but
all of them are about the same height and they're all athletic."
Anthony Jackson, Daviin Davis and Marvin Washington have been Midland
High's leading scorers this season, with Washington by Bulldogs' main 3-point
shooter.
Three-point shooting hasn't been a big factor for the Eagles so far this
season, as Pecos has controlled play inside most of the time. But thee Eagles
also have had problems converting lay-up attempts, something Flores says
can't happen tonight.
"We've done a lot of 8-on-5 stuff in practice, and for the most part as
far as the press goes, we did OK. But we've got to make our shots, that
will be the key," he said. "I think defensively we'll be in good shape,
but we just have to make a couple of shots inside when we have the chance."
Pecos' girls made a lot of shots for the first 2½ quarters of their
game last Tuesday against Presidio, jumping out to as much as a 21-point
lead before winding up with a 58-44 victory, to improve to 2-1 on the season.
A win tonight would allow the Eagles to surpass their victory total for
all of the 2001-02 basketball season.
Back on Nov. 22, the Eagles went to Van Horn and came away with a 50-33
victory, though the game was close until Pecos went on an 11-2 scoring run
in the third period. The visiting Eagles won despite getting no player into
double figures in scoring, while Vivian Anchondo and Mandy Ortega put in
25 of the host Eagles' 33 points.
For tonight, coach Veronica Valenzuela said, "I'd like to work on the
press if we can. We worked on it a little bit in practice, but not a whole
lot, and when we did, I had two girls missing.
"If we don't do too well with it, we can always take it off," she added.
Play starting tonight at home with the combined freshman and junior varsity
squad against Van Horn at 5 p.m., while in Midland, the JV will play the
Bulldogs at Midland High at 6 p.m.
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 2002 by Pecos Enterprise
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