Colored Rock Map of Texas at I-20 in Pecos, Click for Travel Guide

Pecos Enterprise

Home
Site Map
Pecos Gab

ARCHIVE
Pecos Country History
Archive 62
Archive 74
Archive 87
1987 Tornado Photos
Rodeo Photos 88
Archive 95
Archive 96
Archive 97
News Photos 1997
Rodeo Photos 97
Archive 98
News Photos 1998
Rodeo Photos 98
Parade Photos 98
Archive 99
Photos 99
Archive 2000
Archive 2001
Archive 2002
Photos 2000
Photos 2001
Photos 2002


Archive 2003

Area Newspapers
Commerce
Classified
Economic Development


|

Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Sports

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Pecos squanders leads, falls to Presidio, 58-55

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer

The Pecos Eagles survived blowing a big lead to the Presidio Blue Devils earlier this year, but apparently didn't learn a lesson.

Pecos had beaten Presidio twice before District 4-3A play began, despite losing an 18-point lead in one of those games. Tuesday night, the Eagles blew two smaller leads to Presidio and had to stage a big comeback of their own, only to fall apart once again in the closing minutes and lose to the Blue Devils, 58-55, at the Pecos High School gym.

"They wanted it more than we did and they out-hustled us," said coach Joe Flores, whose team managed just two points in the final 4:03 of the game, after rallying from a 10-point deficit to take a 53-47 lead. "Give Presidio credit. They knocked down some shots when they had to, and we didn't get the job done."

Blue Devils' guard Jacob Ramirez was the player the Eagles had the most problems with. He consistently was able to fake out the Eagles' defense in the first half, feeding sophomore post Hector Rodriguez for most of his 17 first half points, , and then scored seven of his 14 points down the stretch, including a 3-pointer and two lay-ups off steals before feeding Adrian Covos for a lay-up that cut the margin to one, at 55-54, with two minutes to play.

After another miss by Pecos, Ivan Carrasco put Presidio ahead to stay with 1:32 to play on a foul line jumper. Joey Ortega then missed on a lay-up for Pecos, and the Blue Devils were able to run 45 seconds off the clock before Jesse Flores missed on a lay-up try with 35 seconds to play. Pecos got the ball back, but with 21 seconds left Jose Reyes had the ball stolen at midcourt by Carrasco.

Flores ended up getting fouled, and missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving the Eagles one more chance, but this time it was an officials' call that did in Pecos, as John Parent was ruled to have touched a ball deflected out of bounds by Ramirez. John Bull was then fouled with 4.9 seconds to play and made both his free throws, and a 25-foot attempt by Ortega at the buzzer hit the left rim and bounced away.

"What happened in the fourth quarter was we got to the crunch time and they hit some shots and we didn't," said Flores.

During the game, the Eagles were unable to play at a slower tempo on offense without seeing the rest of their game stumble against the quicker Blue Devils. Pecos pushed the ball upcourt at the outset of play, and used three Isaiah Armendariz baskets plus rebound lay-ups by Jason Sanchez and Parent to grab a 10-2 lead. But once they slowed things down, the Blue Devils took control of play, outscoring Pecos over one stretch 28-10 to grab a 30-20 lead.

Down 32-24 at the half, the Eagles were again forced to pick up the tempo and responded by outscoring the Blue Devils in the third period, 22-8. Ortega had a series of lay-ups during that run, while Armendariz and Reyes scored on drives to the basket, as Rodriguez got into foul trouble and ended up being held scoreless in the second half.

Reyes' basket put Pecos ahead 40-38 and the Eagles would end the period up 46-40 on a pair of Justin Lara baskets. But after widening the lead to 49-42 on a Reyes 3-pointer Bull responded with a 3-point jumper of his own. Armendariz followed with a short jumper and put two free throws after that, but in between Ramirez began taking over again, stealing the ball from Armendariz and scoring as the Eagles tried to run time off the scoreboard and lost their momentum again.

Armednariz led all scorers with 21 points and Ortega had 10, but Armedariz was the only Pecos player to hit a foul shot on Tuesday, going 5-for-6 while his teammates were 1-for-7. "I told them we can't rely on Isaiah for all our points. Somebody's got to help with the scoring," said Flores.

Jesse Flores also was in double figures with 10 points for Presidio, which won its first district game in three years. The Blue Devils are now 1-1 in district, while the Eagles fell to 0-2 going into Friday night's game at Kermit.

Presidio also won Tuesday's freshman game over Pecos, 47-33, while the Eagles' junior varsity downed the Blue Devils, 49-47. Luis Licon scored 17 points to lead the ninth graders and Saul Pina led the JV with 20 points.

PRESIDIO (58)

Venegas 1 0-0 2; Flores 4 1-2 10; Lopez 0 0-0 0; Carrasco 3 0-0 6; Ramirez 6 0-0 14; Rodriguez 8 1-2 17; Dominguez 0 2-2 2; Covos 1 0-0 2; Bull 2 2-2 7. Totals 25 6-8 58.

PECOS (55)

Sanchez 1 0-0 2; Parada 1 0-0 2; Armendariz 8 5-6 21; Mendoza 0 0-0 0; Reyes 2 0-1 5; Hinojoz 1 1-2 3; Lara 3 0-1 6; Parent 3 0-1 6; Ortega 5 0-2 10. Totals 24 6-13 55.

Presidio 8 24 8 18 _ 58

Pecos 10 14 22 9 _ 55

Three-point goals: Presido 4 (Ramirez 2, Flores, Bull), Pecos 1 (Reyes). Fouled out; Pecos, Reyes. Total fouls: Presidio 14, Pecos 14.

Eagles open district tennis with 10-9 win

The odds were against the Pecos Eagles _ literally _ on the girls' side Tuesday afternoon in their District 4-3A tennis opener against the Monahans Loboes.

But despite the absence of several players, the Eagles were able to get enough wins on the girls' side to combine with the victories by Pecos' boys to give them a 10-9 victory over Monahans on the Loboes' home court.

"We were missing girls big time. My No. 1, 5, 7 and 9 girls were out," said Eagles' coach Mike Ortiz. "I had to move up my No. 2 girls to 1, my No. 6 girl to No. 4 and move my No. 5 to 5 and my 10 to No. 6. So there was a lot of playing out of position by them."

All the lineup changes helped Monahans sweep all three of the varsity girls' doubles matches. "It didn't look good for us, but they came through," in singles play, Ortiz said, as the Eagles were able to split the six matches.

"We were tied 9-9, but my No. 5 girl (Imari Ornelas) who's a freshman pulled out a tiebreaker 10-8, so we had a 10-9 victory," the Eagles' coach said. Ornelas rallied to defeat Laura Ramirez, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8, while Jennifer Rayos, playing at No. 2 seed, defeated Trina Escamilla in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 10-4, and Beatrice Villarreal won at No. 4 seed over Ann Lunar, 6-3, 6-2.

Ortiz said he was missing one boy due to grades, but despite that, Pecos was still able to take six of nine matches, and also won the mixed doubles match. Ornelas and Orlando Mendoza won that one, 6-3, 7-5 over Nathan Pritchard and Liz Bouquin.

"I had a couple of guys I wasn't expecting to do that well who came through with victories," he said, citing Frankie Hernandez, who moved up one spot from No. 7 seed to No. 6 and downed Simon Leyva, 6-3, 6-4, and Donald Walker, who also moved up one spot to No. 7 and beat Corbin Shawn, 6-3, 3-6, 10-5, though that match did not count towards the final varsity score.

Including the JV matches, the Eagles still ended up with a one-match win, 12-11.

Trent Graham, Michael Orona and Joe Sotelo won both their singles and doubles matches on the day for the varsity, though Orona's singles victory was by default. Sotelo won 6-1, 6-1 over John Wilhelm and Graham blanked Quad Ledingham, 6-0, 6-0.

"This was a very important match for us to win, because our next match is against Fort Stockton and that will decide who's seeded 1 or 2," Ortiz said. Unlike in Class 5A or 4A, where the top two seeds advance to regionals, the Eagles coach said, "In Class 3A everyone goes, but it's important how you're seeded, because the higher you are the better match you get."

Pecos' next match is on Saturday, Jan. 25 at home against Fort Stockton, and Ortiz hopes all of his girls will be back for that contest. "I really haven't had a full team for the entire season, so I don't know how good we can be. Hopefully I'll have everyone out this time."

Pecos (10/12) at Monahans (9/11)

Boys Singles

Trent Graham defeated Quad Ledingham, 6-0, 6-0; Jay Dannelley lost to Nolan Pritchard, 1-6, 6-4, 10-5; Michael Orona defeated Zack Oliver by default; Orlando Mendoza lost to Isaac Oyerbides, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6; Joel Sotelo defeated John Wilhelm, 6-1, 6-1; Frankie Hernandez defeated Simon Leyva, 6-3, 6-4.

JV _ Donald Walker defeated Corbin Shawn, 6-2, 6-3; Danny Lujan lost to Jacob Kesey, 6-4, 6-4.

Girls Singles

Elizabeth Carreon lost to Kristi Gatzky, 6-1, 6-1; Jennifer Rayos defeated Trina Escamilla, 4-6, 6-4, 10-4; Amanda Fleming lost to Irene Blocker, 6-3, 6-3; Beatrice Villarreal defeated Ann Lunar, 6-3, 6-2; Imari Ornelas defeated Laura Ramirez, 4-6, 6-4; 10-8; Adrienne Natividad lost to Wanda Ramirez, 6-3, 6-4.

JV _ Sara Natividad defeated Angela Montoya, 6-1, 6-2; Rachel Rubio lost to Liz Bouquin, 6-0, 6-3.

Boys Doubles

Graham and Dannelley defeated Ledingham and Oliver, 5-7, 6-4, 10-4; Orona and Sotelo defeated Oyerbides and Wilhelm, 6-4, 6-3; Hernandez and Walker lost to Leyva and Shawn, 6-4, 6-3.

Girls Doubles

Carreon and Rayos lost to Gatski and Lunar, 6-3, 6-4; Fleming and Villarreal lost to Escamilla and Blocker, 7-6 (7-5), 6-0; A. Natividad and S. Natividad lost to L. Ramirez and W. Ramirez, 6-2, 4-6, 10-7.

Mixed Doubles

Mendoza and Ornelas defeated Pritchard and Bouquin, 6-3, 7-5.

Eagles rout Blue Devils, end district loss streak

By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer

Two foul shots every minute during a basketball game doesn't sound like much, until you start squeezing them all into two quarters and take time out to go to the line for the shots.

That's pretty much how the Pecos Eagles and Presidio Blue Devils spent the second and fourth quarters of their game Tuesday night at the Pecos High School gym, but as it turned out, it was a series of baskets at the start of the first period and at the end of the third quarter by Pecos that helped them pull away from Presidio and earn a 65-39 victory, snapping a 13-game district losing streak for the Eagles.

"We started slacking off and playing to their level, but I'll take a win," said coach Veronica Valenzuela. It was Pecos' fourth win in the past two years over Presidio, but the girls' first district win since the next-to-last game of the 2000-2001 season, when the Eagles were a member of District 2-4A.

The game itself lasted almost two hours, but it took Pecos all of four seconds to take the lead for good in the game, as Stephanie Herrera scored on a lay-up after grabbing the opening tip from Tiana Terry. That would start a 17-2 run by the Eagles over the first six minutes of play, but for the next two quarters, the Blue Devils would stay with Pecos, and even cut down the 15-point margin to as little as nine in the second period, and down to 12 in the third quarter, after Pecos had widened the gap back to as many as 19 just before halftime.

However, a 12-0 run in the final two minutes of the third quarter, including six points in the final 20 seconds of play, doubled the Eagles' margin to 24-points, at 52-28, as the third quarter ended, and the fourth period was spent mostly trading foul shots, as two players for each team would foul out before the game was over.

"We actually ran our offense, and did a better job not rushing things, and we were more aggressive going to the basket," Valenzuela said. "We were also a little bit more comfortable running the press break."

Leslie Rodriguez, who had 21 points in the Eagles' 58-44 win over Presidio back in November, led all scorers again with 15 points, over half coming during the opening 17-2 run. Presidio was able to cut into that gap as the first period ended and the second quarter began, after post Karla Garcia entered the lineup. Her 3-point play midway through the second period cut the lead back to 19-10, but two baskets and a pair of free throws by Jessica Martinez allowed the Eagles to widen the lead back to 25-14, and the Eagles would widen that to as much as 19, at 35-16, before Christi Carrasco hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer.

A rebound lay-up off a steal by Garcia would get the Blue Devils to within 12 late in the third period, but once again, Pecos was able to respond with their 12-0 run to close the period. Danielle Garcia had two baskets during the run, the second on a steal off an inbounds play following an Erica Franco basket. Stephanie Herrera then scored on a full court drive after another steal with two seconds left in the period.

Garcia finished tied with Terry for second high-scorer for the Eagles with 11 points, despite struggling from the line. The sophomore went 5-for-18 from the line, as part of an overall 17-for-38 night for Pecos. Presidio went 13-for-27 from the line in the game.

Karla Garcia, who didn't start for Presidio for disciplinary reasons, ended up as the Blue Devils' leading scorer with 11 points. The win lifted the Eagles to 1-3 in District 4-3A play and 7-9 on the season, while Presidio fell to 0-4 in district play. The Blue Devils did win Tuesday's junior varsity game, by a 23-20 final score. Kristi Contreras led Pecos with seven points.

The Eagles will go to Kermit on Friday to face the Yellowjackets to close out the first half of the District 4-3A schedule.

PRESIDIO (39)

Medrano 2 2-2 6; Chavez 0 3-6 3; Ramirez 0 0-0 0; Telles 0 1-2 1; Lujan 2 0-0 4; A. Carrasco 2 2-2 7; C. Carrasco 3 0-4 7; Tavarez 0 0-0 0; Garcia 3 5-9 11. Totals 12 13-27 39.

PECOS (65)

Rodriguez 7 1-2 15; Franco 1 4-4 6; Ornelas 1 0-0 2; Martinez 0 1-3 1; Herrera 5 0-0 10; Martinez 3 3-4 9; Garcia 3 5-18 11; Terry 4 3-7 11. Totals 24 17-38 65.

Presidio 5 14 9 11 _ 39

Pecos 18 17 17 13 _ 65

Three-point goals: Presidio 2 (A. Carrasco, C. Carrasco). Fouled out: Presidio, Lujan, A. Carrasco. Pecos, Mendoza, Terry. Total fouls: Presidio 27, Pecos 24.



Search Entire Site:


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 2003 by Pecos Enterprise