|
Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Mustangs add to Eagles' homecourt woes
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
After a major turnaround on Monday following their season opening loss
to Lovington, the Pecos Eagle boys basketball team turned back the
other way again on Tuesday night against the Andrews Mustangs.
The Eagles, who followed up a 66-point loss at home to Lovington
with a 21-point win on Monday at Alpine, came home Tuesday and were
beaten by 40 points by Andrews, as the Mustangs took advantage of a
series of Pecos mistakes to defeat the Eagles, 68-28 at the Pecos High
School gym.
"This is the worst game I've ever been associated with in Pecos,
Texas, in my five years here," said Eagles' coach Joe Flores. "I'm
embarrassed that we can work so hard and look so bad."
Flores was angriest about Pecos' 30 turnovers and Andrews' 25
offensive rebounds, many of which led to second- or third-chance
baskets. "Andrews is a well-coached basketball team but they're
beatable. I can't believe our guys weren't ready to play."
Andrews had problems of its own in the opening period, especially
post Blas Hernandez. He rebounded a missed Eagle shot and then laid it
up into the basket for what turned out to be Pecos' first field goal of
the night, then knocked teammate Kelvin Roberts out of bounds at the
other end of the court as he was trying to corral a long pass.
Justin Lara ended up getting credit for Hernandez' basket, and then
hit two free throws after that to give the Eagles what turned out to be
their only lead of the night, at 4-2. Roberts would put Andrews ahead
to stay at 9-6 a few minutes later with a 3-point jumper, but the
Mustangs' margin was only 10-9 going into the second period.
That's when Pecos began falling apart. Roberts scored on a steal and
lay-up to open the second period, and then Jose Ramirez and Hernandez
followed with rebound baskets for a 16-9 lead. Lara then got the
Eagles' only rebound lay-up of the night, but Richard Hooper followed
with a 3-pointer as part of a 19-4 run by Andrews to close out the
first half.
Several of those baskets came off turnovers on the full-court press,
which included two times when Pecos was unable to get the ball inbounds
before a five second violation was called.
"Tonight we witnessed some full-court pressure," Flores said. "Last
night we didn't have any pressure, but tonight we just couldn't handle
it."
Things didn't get any better in the third period. Andrews outscored
Pecos 20-5 during that span, including four rebound lay-ups and three
other baskets off steals by the Mustangs, who ended the quarter up by
36 and added four more points onto the lead in the final eight minutes
of play.
Roberts led all scorers with 20 points, while Rett Rhodes, son of
former Pecos Eagles' head basketball coach Mike Rhodes, had 12 points
and Hernandez had 11 for Andrews, which improved to 3-0 on the season.
Lara was the only Pecos player in double figures with 11 points, as the
Eagles fell to 1-2 going into a nine-day break. Their next game will be
in Andrews, against Lubbock Trinity Christian in the opening round of
the Gym Bice Memorial Tournament.
"I hate to go into the break like this, knowing how hard we worked
the past three weeks and then to play like that," Flores said.
Andrews also won Tuesday's junior varsity game, by a 55-38 score.
Luis Nunez led Pecos with eight points.
ANDREWS (68)
Haygood 0 0-0 0; Hooper 4 0-0 10; Rodriguez 1 0-0 3; Bailey 2 0-0 5;
Harvey 0 0-0 0; Hernandez 4 3-4 11; Roberts 9 1-2 20; Ramirez 3 1-4 7;
Rhodes 6 0-0 12. Totals 29 5-10 68.
PECOS (28)
Estrada 0 0-0 0; Parada 3 0-0 6; Morales 2 0-0 4; Pina 1 0-1 2;
Reyes 2 0-0 4; Anchondo 0 1-2 1; Lara 4 3-4 11; Medina 0 0-0 0. Totals
12 4-8 28.
Andrews 10 25 20 12 68
Pecos 9 6 5 8 28
Three-point goals: Andrews 5 (Hooper 2, Rodriguez, Bailey, Roberts).
Fouled out: None. Total fouls: Andrews 10, Pecos 11.
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
|
