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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
Eagle errors at half's end boost Cranes
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
It only took a few minutes of sloppy play for the Pecos Eagles to see a
small deficit against the Crane Golden Cranes turn into a big one
Tuesday night, in the team's first home game of the 2003-04 girls
basketball season.
Crane scored 10 straight points in the final 31/2 minutes of the
first half to turn a 19-15 lead into a 29-15 advantage, and would add
as many as 10 points to that margin in the second half, before
finishing with a 53-39 win over the Eagles at the Pecos High School
gym.
Sophomore Amanda Baker worked inside for a game-high 15 points for
Crane, but the Eagles were hurt more by guard Destri Schal, who scored
six of her 14 points during the late second period run, including a
steal and bank shot at the buzzer, after a length of the court drive
with time running out.
The Eagles had lost to the Cranes in Crane last Friday by a 49-29
score, and going into Tuesday's rematch, Eagles' coach Veronica
Valenzuela said, "Defensively we worked on packing it in and not
letting the big girl (Baker) score. The game plan was to make them
shoot from the outside, and I felt we did a good job in the first
quarter.
"But in the second quarter with about four minutes left we started
running around like there was one minute left in the game and that's
when the bad things started," she said
The Eagles threw the ball away several times while trying to bring
the ball upcourt, including a couple of times directly off the inbounds
play.
"They weren't running that tough a press, but we made some bad
passes," Valenzuela said. "and our shooting percentage was just as low
as when we went over there. In the second quarter we started throwing
the ball around and just throwing the ball up, and that's when it
started getting out of hand."
Pecoos only led once in the game, at 6-4, after a rebound basket by
Danielle Garcia and a side jumper by Leslie Rodriguez. A three-point
play by Baker put the Cranes ahead to stay, but the Eagles were still
within four points after a basket by Adriana Armendariz before Pecos'
problems began.
Neither team scored for over 21/2 minutes in the third period, until
Garcia hit a lane jumper. But Crane then scored 10 of the next 12
points, capping the run with a 3-point basket by Marissa Henderson that
put the Cranes ahead, 39-19.
The Eagles scored six of the final eight points in the period to get
the margin back down to 16, but Henderson opened the final period with
a steal and lay-up and Crane would eventually widen their lead to 53-29
on Baker's final basket of the night, before Pecos scored the final 10
points of the game in the last 21/2 minutes of play.
Rodriguez scored 10 points to lead Pecos in scoring, while
Armendariz and Vanessa Garcia had eight for the Eagles, who fell to
3-12 on the season going into their District 4-3A opener on Friday, at
home against Monahans. Crane improved their record to 7-11 on the year.
The Cranes also won Tuesday's junior varsity game, 43-29. Ashley
Dunn led the Eagles in scoring with nine points.
CRANE (53)
Gonzales 1 1-4 3; Henderson 3 0-0 7; Frymire 3 0-2 6; Schal 4 6-8 14;
Crumrine 1 0-0 2; Bagwell 1 0-0 2; Sandoval 1 0-2 2; Baker 5 5-10 15;
Chisum 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 12-26 53.
PECOS (39)
Rodriguez 3 4-7 10; Carrasco 1 1-2 3; D. Garcia 3 1-4 7; M. Mendoza 0
0-1 0; O. Mendoza 0 3-5 3; V. Garcia 2 4-4 8; Armendariz 3 2-4 8;
Mazone 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 15-27 39.
Crane 12 17 12 12 53
Pecos 8 7 10 14 39
Three-point goals: Crane 1 (Henderson). Fouled out: Crane, Chisum.
Pecos, Rodriguez. Total fouls: Crane 23, Pecos 20.
Third quarter woes cost Eagles in loss to Steers
Pretty much everything, including the scoreboard, went against the
Pecos Eagles in the third quarter of their boys basketball game in Big
Spring on Tuesday night, as the host Steers were able to turn an
nine-point halftime deficit into a six-point victory.
Leading 22-13 at the half, the Eagles were outscored 20-6 - or 18-6,
according to coach Joe Flores - in the third period to fall behind by
five, and were unable to catch up in the final period, losing to the
Steers by a 46-40 final score.
"They put a lot of pressure on us in the third quarter, and we made
what I still call 'unforced errors'," Flores said. "We would be going
in transition from defense to offense and had a lot of break
opportunities but we just couldn't connect."
Brandon Hughes scored all seven of his points in the third period
for Big Spring, and Jordan Cobb scored all of his game-high 11 points
in the second half, while Wes Smith had 10 points for Big Spring.
Flores said Cobb, Hughes and Smith did most of their scoring from
inside. "They got a lot of rebounds in the third quarter that helped
them out, and we gave them a lot of turnovers as well," the Eagles'
coach said. "They were much bigger than us and they kind of beat us up
in the third period."
Grade problems also left Flores short of bodies on Tuesday - the
Eagles suited up only seven players - but Pecos was able to score 11
points in each of the first two periods, before managing only six in
the third.
Flores also had problems with the officials both on the court and at
the scorer's table. "They gave Big Spring two extra points, and then we
were down two possessions with about a minute left and they kicked the
ball out of bounds. I called time out thinking we had the ball, but
when we got back onto the court, they did," he said.
Oscar Parada, Ricardo Morales and Daniel Medina all had nine points
to lead the Eagles, who fell to 6-11 on the season. The game was the
sixth straight on the road for Pecos, a streak which will end on Friday
when the Eagles host Crane.
PECOS (40)
Parada 4 0-0 9; Morales 4 1-4 9; J. Reyes 4 0-0 9; Licon 1 0-0 2; Lara
2 0-0 4; V. Reyes 2 3-4 7; Medina 0 0-2 0. Totals 17 4-10 40.
BIG SPRING (46)
Gross 0 0-0 0; Lowery 4 0-0 8; Ornelas 3 0-0 6; Teeters 0 0-0 0; Hughes
2 3-5 7; Smith 4 2-3 10; Cobb 4 2-2 11; Flenniker 2 0-2 4; Creel 0 0-0
0; Partel 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 7-12 46.
Pecos 11 11 6 12 40
Big Spring 8 5 20 13 46
Three-point goals: Pecos 2 (Parada, J. Reyes), Big Spring 1 (Cobb).
Fouled out: Pecos, Lara. Total fouls: Pecos 17, Big Spring 14.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
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 by Pecos Enterprise
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