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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Lady Bears On the Ropes

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
    Bosque School beat the Estancia High girls basketball team twice in five days for the privilege of hosting the District 8-2A tournament finals.
    The Bobcats edged the Lady Bears 39-38 in their last regular-season game at Bosque on Feb. 21. The result created a tie (5-1) in district play, and a special pre-tourney tiebreaker game was scheduled.
    "We just came out slow in the first quarter," said EHS junior Kaiya Coburn, who scored 11 points in the first game. "We can't do that, especially in a game that we know is going to be close."
    The additional game was played Monday at neutral Menaul. Estancia's cold shooting, at least 10 blocked shots from 6-foot Bobcat Emily Rogers, a slippery floor and some controversial calls all contributed to the Bears' losing 34-29.
    Victoria Barner, who rolled by Rogers when her teammates drew the Bosque player to them on baseline drives, had a game-high 14 points for the Bears.
    The Bobcats (15-9) will host the district-tournament finals on Friday. Estancia (17-10), relegated to the second seed, hosted the semifinals late Wednesday.
    "We didn't shoot well (Monday) ..." Bears coach Mike Trujillo said. "But if we can get past (the semis) and show up Friday, I think we'll be OK."
   
Estancia boys
    The fifth-ranked Bears (23-3, 6-0) will host the district-tournament championship game after defeating Bosque School 53-40 on the Bobcats' campus on Feb. 21.
    The finals will be held at Estancia's gym Saturday.
    The Bears, on a nine-game winning streak, scored 11 unanswered points in the last 16 seconds of the game against Bosque. The Bobcats were assessed four technicals in a row.
    The score was tied at 33 after three quarters. Estancia subsequently held a 42-40 lead when Bobcat Pierre Amestoy fouled Alan Gonzalez with 15.8 seconds left in the fourth.
    The foul was normal for a situation in which the clock is the enemy. But Amestoy, in a continuation, followed with a push that sent Gonzalez sprawling, thus generating a flagrant classification.
    Bosque's Jonathan Allison was then hit with a technical after he approached the official, and Bobcats coach Craig Snow was levied another tech for his reaction to Allison's "T." Amestoy rejoined the fray for the fourth tech.
    "I have no problem with the flagrant; he pushed him," Snow said later. "But when your speaking captain (Allison) goes to the official and says, 'Excuse me, sir,' and they give him a technical, that's awful."
    Gonzalez hit the first two free throws. David Ortiz sank five of the remaining six freebies for a 49-40 EHS lead.
    The Bears got two more field goals before the buzzer sounded. Ortiz paced Estancia with 21 points.