PECOS ENTERPRISE

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January 22, 1997

Sweetwater's strength inside stuffs Pecos


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By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Jan. 22 -- The Pecos Eagles had six 3-point baskets against the
Sweetwater Mustangs Tuesday night.

The Mustangs had four dunks.

That pretty much tells the story of which team was taking the higher
percentage shots, as the district-leading Mustangs used their size
advantage to dominate play inside and come away with a 78-51 victory
over the Eagles at the Pecos High School gym.

"The kids played hard, and they played with a lot of class," said
Eagles' coach Mike Sadler, "But all they have to do is let you go to the
basket, and (Robert) Reed just cleans it up."

The 6-foot-6 Reed kept Pecos from doing much inside on offense, while he
and Derrick Franklin both had a pair of dunks at the other end in the
third period, when Sweetwater stretched a 17-point lead to a 30-point
advantage.

When I watched them at Big Spring (on Jan. 7), I really didn't feel they
were that good, but I got a different perspective tonight," the Eagles'
coach said. "I didn't realize they're such a senior-oriented team."

Reed, Jason Blueford and Shedrick Williams -- who is related to Sadler
-- were the seniors who kept Sweetwater going in the second period,
after Franklin, a junior who is the team's leading scorer, got into foul
trouble while the game was still close.

He went out with 2:40 left in the half when he fouled Omar Hinojos with
Sweetwater up 30-20. But the Eagles' junior missed from the line, and
after Brett Bishop hit a lay-up off a Reed deflected shot, Blueford hit
a lane jumper and then Williams added two foul shots and a 3-pointer as
time wound down in the half.

That was Sweetwater's lone 3-pointer of the night. Earlier, the Eagles
had used 3-pointers by Eric Abila and Hinojos to cut a 9-0 Sweetwater
lead to 13-12 as the second period began.

But while Franklin was getting into foul trouble late in the half, the
Eagles had a trio of starters in foul difficulty before that. Hinojos
and Jacob Chavez each picked up two early fouls, and Chavez also
sprained his ankle in the process, while Fabien Adame had three fouls
with 6½ minutes left in the half.

Pecos was still within four, at 24-20, with 4½ minutes left in the half
when they went cold from the outside. Jason Abila's short jumper to cut
the lead to four was the Eagles' final field goal of the half, and their
only other points were a pair of free throws by Jason Abila with a
minute left in the half.

The cold shooting continued into the third period, and Sweetwater really
got their running game going, allowing Reed and Franklin to get their
fast-break dunks. Moses Martinez broke the outside drought with a
3-pointer midway through the quarter, but by then Sweetwater had a 53-27
lead.

The big lead did give Sadler a chance to get his reserves more playing
time than they've had in a while, and Fernando Navarrete had a pair of
lay-ups late in the period, while freshman Jeremy Herrera got his first
varsity points, off a pair of free throws in the final 30 seconds of the
third quarter.

All five Mustang starters finished in double figures, led by Reed with
19, while Eric Abila's 13 points and Jason Abila's 11 topped Pecos. The
win gave Sweetwater a two-game lead in the District 4-4A playoff race at
the midway point, at 5-0. The Mustangs are 18-6 overall.

Pecos is 1-4 in district, 8-11 for the season, but still just two games
out of a playoff spot, thanks to Big Spring's 71-68 victory over Fort
Stockton. The Eagles are tied for fifth with Andrews, 60-52 losers at
San Angelo on Tuesday, and travel to Andrews for the first of two
straight road games on Friday night.

Sweetwater also won the junior varsity game, by a 52-43 final score.
There was no freshman game played Tuesday.

SWEETWATER (78)
Blueford 4 3-5 11; Reed 6 7-8 19; Williams 4 4-5 13; Bishop 7 0-0 14;
Franklin 6 0-0 12; Boatright 0 0-1 0; King 3 0-0 6; Rhodes 0 0-0 0; Brim
0 0-2 0; Wright 1 1-2 3. Totals 31 15-23 78.

PECOS (51)
E. Abila 4 2-3 13; J. Abila 4 3-3 11; Adame 3 1-2 7; Chavez 2 0-0 4;
Hinojos 2 1-3 6; Herrera 0 2-2 2; Luna 0 0-0 0; Martinez 1 0-0 3; Garcia
1 0-0 3; Marquez 0 0-0 0; Navarrete 2 0-0 4. Totals 18 9-13 51.

Sweetwater 13 26 26 13 --78
Pecos 9 13 13 16 --51

Three-point goals: Sweetwater 1 (Williams), Pecos 6 (E. Abila 3,
Hinojos, Martinez, Garcia). Fouled out: None. Total fouls: Sweetwater
19, Pecos 20.

Mustangs use back door to get by Eagles


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By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, Jan. 22 -- Vanessa Lehrmann's 29 points came a lot easier than
Lori Marquez' 29 did Tuesday night, and the rest of the Sweetwater
Mustangs also found back door openings to get past the Pecos Eagles.

Lehrmann was the main beneficiary of Sweetwater's inside passes, scoring
most of her points on a series of lay-ups and from the foul line, as the
Mustangs slowly built up their lead over the Eagles on the way to a
61-47 victory at the Pecos High School gym.

Eagles' coach Patty Hall said the Mustangs had used the same back door
passes to beat Pecos earlier this month in Sweetwater. "We talked about
that, and saw it on film again," she said. "A couple of times we were
able to cause some mistakes on it, but they were able to score too many
times off the give-and-go."

The Eagles' best scoring chances came off the press, especially in the
early going. Penny Armstrong scored off a Marquez steal to open the
game, while both Lori and Annette Marquez came away with lay-ups off
turnovers, giving Pecos a quick 8-2 lead.

But just as in their Jan. 2 loss at Sweetwater, fouls would hamper the
Eagles as the first half went on. After the opening foul of the game was
whistled on Sweetwater, the officials called 11 straight fouls on the
Eagles, and Armstrong, Lori Marquez and Ivy Thorp all had two fouls
within the first 8½ minutes of play.

Armstrong and Thorp would go to the bench with their third fouls later
in the second period, and as the Mustangs began to solve the Eagles'
press and find the back-door openings for lay-ups, Sweetwater took
control. Unforced turnovers by the Eagles also hurt as the Mustangs
outscored Pecos 14-2 in the final 3½ minutes of the opening period,
closing with a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Lindsay Lepard for an 18-12
lead.

They kept that margin for most of the second period, but in the final 90
seconds scored six straight points, four off back door lay-ups, to go
into the locker room up 34-22.

"There weren't as many turnovers in the first half as they were against
Fort Stockton and Big Spring. Still, some of those shouldn't happen. We
just lost our concentration," Hall said.

The lay-ups continued in the third period. Lehrmann had eight of her 29
in the quarter, all off lay-ups, and Sweetwater's lead grew to as much
as 19 points early in the final period.

Pecos' press would get another series of turnovers as the final period
began, and the Eagles did get the margin back down to 12 with two
minutes to play. But Lepard then hit two foul shots and Lehrmann got her
final lay-up to end any hopes for a miracle comeback in the final
minutes.

Annette Marquez was the only other player besides Lehrmann and Lori
Marquez in double figures, with 10, but the Eagles got just four other
baskets out of their other six players -- three by Armstrong and a
lay-up by Monique Levario, who Hall said did a good job defensively on
Lucreshia Washington after Thorp and Armstrong got into foul trouble.

Sweetwater stayed tied for second with Andrews, both at 5-2 in District
4-4A play, while Pecos fell to 1-6 in district with their sixth straight
loss, and are 6-14 overall, going into Friday's game at Andrews.

SWEETWATER (61)
Lehrmann 11 7-11 29; Lepard 3 2-2 9; Swindle 2 1-2 5; Clemens 3 0-1 6;
Washington 2 2-2 6; Bender 1 0-0 2; Rannefeld 0 1-2 1; Haynes 1 0-0 3;
Ortiz 0 0-0 0; Creswell 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 13-20 61.

PECOS (47)
Carrasco 0 0-0 0; A. Marquez 5 0-1 10; Armstrong 3 0-0 6; L. Marquez 13
3-4 29; Thorp 0 0-0 0; Levario 1 0-0 2; Orona 0 0-0 0; Bell 0 0-0 0.
Totals 22 3-5 47.

Sweetwater 18 16 14 13 --61
Pecos 12 10 9 16 --47
Three-point goals: Sweetwater 2 (Lepard, Haynes). Fouled out: None.
Total fouls: Sweetwater 14, Pecos 21.

Bears score OT win at Imperial


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PECOS, Jan. 22 -- The Balmorhea Bears ended a long losing streak in
District 29-A boys basketball play at Imperial to the Buena Vista
Longhorns Tuesday night, going overtime to come out on top by an 80-78
final score.

Balmorhea's girls didn't fare as well, as the defending district
champions overcame a one-point Bears' lead at halftime in a big way in
the second half, winning 62-25 in the second district game of the season
for both teams.

The girls held the Longhorns to just 16 first half points, but Buena
Vista went on a 22-3 run in the third period and outscored the Bears by
19 points again in the fourth quarter.

"The difference in experience took over," said Bears' coach Ennis
Erickson, who has a mostly freshman and sophomore squad this season. "We
were able to make less mistakes and played smarter in the first half."

Brenda Dutchover had 16 of Balmorhea's 25 points, while Buena Vista's
Sherry O'Rourke also had 16 to lead her team. The Bears fell to 0-2 in
district, 5-9 overall, while Buena Vista is 2-0 and 9-13.

Balmorhea's boys ended Buena Vista's streak of district titles last
season, but needed a playoff to do so after the teams both won on their
own courts during regular season play. On Tuesday, the Bears turned a
34-32 lead at halftime into a 59-47 advantage, only to see the Longhorns
rally to tie with a 22-point fourth quarter.

Coach Michael Barrandey was unavailable this morning, but Erickson said
the Bears went ahead to stay with about 35 seconds left in the overtime
period. "Buena Vista had a couple of opportunities to go ahead again,
they just couldn't do it," he said.

Jason Williams, led Buena Vista with 33 points, while Balmorhea got a
combined 56 points from Zane Rhyne (29 points) and Kevin Castillo (27).
Scott Clark also was in double figures for the Bears with 12, as they
improved to 2-0 in district, and 11-2 on the season. The Longhorns are
1-1 and 10-10 overall.

Tuesday' games were the first of three straight on the road for the
Bears. They'll go to Grandfalls on Friday, then play at Marathon next
Tuesday.
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State and Regional Sports Pages--San Angelo Standard-Times


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