El Campo Leader-News (El Campo, Tex.), Vol. 99, No. 83, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 7, 1984 Page: 7 of 22
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El Campo Leader-News, El Campo, TX, Sal., Jan 7,1984
Page 7-A
L-N Photo by Jo* <;u*rrinl
Sports
’Birds Take First Step
With District Victory
By JOE GUERRINI
Head coach Brad Barnes
remarked last week that the first
two or three games of the District
10-4A season could very well set
the tone for the Ricebirds’
chances of making the playoff at
season’s end.
Last night the El Campo varsity
boys traveled to Santa Fe for their
first district road game of the
season with the first win already
under their belts.
Columbia’s Roughnecks
strolled into El Campo for the two
teams’ third meeting of the
season Tuesday night, but they
left in a huff with a 64-53 loss and a
0-1 district slate.
In the two teams’ previous
meetings during the El Campo
Lions Club Basketball Tour-
nament in December, the
Roughnecks’ 6-3 senior all-stater
Kevin Davis scored a total of 52
points. Columbia won the first
meeting, 73-71, and El Campo the
second, 83-69.
Tuesday night the Ricebirds
were ready for Davis and covered
him like a blanket. Ultimately, he
did not end up such an influential
part of the Roughneck attack,
picking up his fourth foul early in
the third quarter and finishing the
game with only 10 points.
On the other side of the coin was
El Campo’s 5-10 junior Heath
Sherman, who plays more like he
is 6-2. Sherman scored a total of 46
points in the two games, 32 of
them coming in the second game
victory.
Tuesday night Sherman once
again hit the magic 30-point mark,
this time on the nose. Eleven of
those came during a furious
fourth quarter rush that helped
squash a Roughneck rally that
had closed the gap to 51-49 with
2:38 left in the game. He also
collected a game-high 16
rebounds.
During the last three minutes of
the game, Sherman had seven
points on two buckets and three
free throws. Overall, Sherman hit
11 of 15 from the field and 8 of 11
from the charity stripe. Davis, on
the other hand, hit only 5 of 14
from the field and 0 of 4 from the
line.
El Campo dominated the game
in the first quarter. Sherman and
guard Rodney Owens combined
for eight of El Campo’s 12 points
in the quarter. The score at the
end of one was EC 12, Columbia 6.
Columbia dominated the second
quarter, closing to 26-24 at half-
time. Floyd Jones, a 6-5 senior
center, hit six of his team-high 13
points in the quarter. Steve
Brown, a 6-1 senior guard, also hit
double figures for Columbia,
connecting for 10 points.
The Roughnecks closed within
two with 3:45 left in the third
quarter, 34-32. Some Ricebird free
throws followed by an 18-foot
jump shot by guard Merlin
Roberts from the top of the key
put EC ahead 40-32.
As a team, El Campo had a good
night from the field hitting 25 of 50
shots for an even 50 percent. The
Ricebird defense held the
Roughnecks to 44 percent on 25 of
57 shooting. From the line, EC hit
14 of 23 for 60 percent while
Columbia hit 5 of 18 for 28 percent.
Other Ricebirds hitting double
figures were Roberts and Owens
with 11 points apiece. Other
Ricebird individual statistic
leaders included: junior Kelly
Manis with three steals ; Roberts
with four assists; and juniors
Chris Goerig and Roberts with
one Mocked shot each. Overall, El
Campo had 26 turnovers to
Columbia's 18.
Columbia is now 8-8 overall. El
Campo, now 7-8 overall, takes on
Friendswood at home Tuesday
night at the ECHS gym. Fresh-
men start at 5 p.m., junior varsity
at 6 p.m. and varsity at7:30p.m.
El Campo’s junior varsity
evened their record at 5-5 with a
55-43 victory over the Columbia
JV. Todd Swoboda led the
Ricebird JV with 17 points,
followed by Ricky Kana with 14
and Barry Forrest with 13.
Up And Down Week For Girls
Comin9 Thru
Reserve Ricebird guard Darren Williams puts his head down and makes
his move past a Columbia defender in Tuesday night’s 64-53 victory over
the Roughnecks. Williams had two points in the game, handed out two
assists and made two steals.
m se- , ......
Tigerette Defense- Stymies;
But Rangerettes Surrender Hornets’ Patience Virtuous
By JOE GUERRINI
One team playing the same
game two different ways. That is
what the El Campo girls varsity
basketball team seemed to be
doing this week as they evened
their district record at 2-2.
Tuesday night the Ricebirds
played what first-year coach Jane
Cooper called “one of their best
games together as a team,”
crushing the visiting Terry
Rangerettes, 80-38. Thursday
night, the ’Birds traveled the 13
miles to Wharton only to be edged
54-49 by the Tigerettes.
After Tuesday night’s game,
Cooper said, “Everyone depended
on each other tonight.” TTiursday
night they vainly searched for
that someone or something to
depend on as the Tigerette*’
sticky defense held El Campo in
check.
“You could tell something was
not clicking," Cooper said of the
Wharton loss. Actually the El
Campo girls had the switch click
off midway through the first
quarter of that game.
Wharton jumped to a four-point
lead before the El Campoans got
on the board. El Campo, though,
raced back with 11 unanswered
points and looked to be on the
right track when Wharton’s Ann
Randell, who finished with a
game-high 18 points, was inserted
into the game.
She hit all three shots from the
field in addition to her kme shot
from the foul line in less than five
minutes of play. In the meantime,
the Wharton defe nse kept the
Ricebirds from hitti.4 a shot, as
the Tigerettes took a 17-12 first
quarter lead.
That set the tempo for the
game The Tigerettes. also now 2
2 in district play, hit 20 of 39 shots
from the field for 51 percent while
holding El Campo to 31 percent on
16 of 52 shooting.
The second quarto* was El
Campo’s worst as 14 shot were
fired and only two made it
through the net. Yolanda Monroe
threw up nine of those shots and
only connected on one. One bright
spot in the disastrous quarter was
Kelly K ore nek who blocked three
shots in the quarter and five in the
game.
“We never play real poor
defensively,” Cooper said.
Wharton had a 30-22 lead at
halftime.
Despite the poor shooting, El
Campo never really found itself
completely out of the running. A
bucket by junior Carrie
Slaughter, who finished with a
team-high 15 points, with 4:44 left
in the third quarter put the
Ricebirds ahead 33-32
But a bucket by Randell
followed by one by teammate Lois
Royster, who finished with 11
points, gave the Tigerettes the
lead back for good
Further decreasing El Campo’s
chances for a comeback was the
fouling of out of senior Ricebird
starter Felisha Estell with 3:36
left in the game. She finished with
10 points “She sees above the
defense (she is 5-10) and tells the
kids what's going on She is a good
leader on the floor
“When you lose a dose game
like that.” Cooper said, “you just
have to work a little harder ”
Wharton's junior varsity team
also came away a winner, 97-28.
leading the way for the El
Campoans were Carol Hubcnak
and Dawn Havens with 10 points
each The Ei Campo freshmen
See Page 6-A
For Hornettes Story
were 27-13 losers. Charlotte Allen
led El Campo with eight points.
Tuesday night El Campo almost
scored at will with Slaughter
finishing with a game-high 27
points in little over two quarters
played. Many of those baskets
came on fast-break layups.
Slaughter and Felisha Estell
each were burdened with three
fouls before the end of the first
quarter. “There was no hesitation
from the bench,” Cooper said.
“We could put anybody in there
and they kept on playing
together.”
Cooper called it a “good, con-
sistent game.” Estell followed
Slaughter in scoring with 17
points, 14 rebounds, three steals
and six assists; Kelly K ore nek
had 10 points, nine rebounds, six
blocked shots and three assists;
and Jackie Sanford contributed 11
rebounds Slaughter finished with
four steals and three assists in
addition to the 27 points
Monday night the Friendswood
girls visit El Campo.
In Louige’s 50-45 District-Opening Victory
"Everything comes to him who hustles while he wsits. ”
—Thomas A. Edison.
History proves patience paid off for Mr. Edison and
Tuesday night in Wallis, it paid off for Tom Lovejoy
and his Louise Hornets.
The Hornets, not blessed with a lot of height, ex-
emplified Mr. Edison’s proverb with a 50-45 district-
opening victory over the Brazos Cougars.
“We played our game,” Lovejoy said. “The fact
that we were patient and worked for our shots took
them out of their game." As far as just what kind of
game the Cougars play, Lovejoy said, “They sure like
to run and gun.”
Most of the offensive burden for Louise once again
fell on the shoulders of juniors Romy Robinson and
Aubrey Miller. The two combined for 42 of the
Hornets’ 50 points. Robinson connected for 22 points
and Miller, 20. Robinson also had a team-high 15 re-
bounds and Robinson dished out 10 assists.
Reason for the victory was not Robinson and Miller
by themselves, according to Lovejoy. “It was a great
team effort,” he said pointing out that had it not been
for the supporting cast of Greg Buzek, who had 10 re-
bounds, Ramiro DeLeon, Ricky Marek and Bill
Means, the final score may have been different.
“They were as just as important as the other two,”
Lovejoy said. “They did what I call ‘the dirty
work’—defense, picking up loose balls and making
good passes.” One thing they did not do as much of as
they had in the past is commit turnovers.
The Hornets turned over the ball 15 times, which,
according to Lovejoy, “wasn’t bad considering they
pressed us the whole game.”
Louise broke out to a quick 11-6 lead in the first
quarter and extended that to 25-16 by the end of the
half. Lovejoy said the Hornets’ patience wore a little
thin in the third quarter as they began to play Brazos'
hurry-up style of play.
in the game when Robinson hit both ends of a one-and-
one, the second consecutive game in which he came
through in such a situation. Robinson hit 10 of 13 from
the charity stripe to help elevate the Hornets’ free
throw shooting percentage to 46.
“Everything just fell into place,” Lovejoy said.
“We played good defense and shot well from the out-
side.” The Hornets hit 42 percent of their shots from
the field.
“The patient attack” went on the road Friday night
to Ganado where the Hornets took on the taller In-
dians Lovejoy said he considers the Indians to be one
of the top two teams in District 28-2A this season.
Check Wednesday’s Leader-Newt for results.
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Carrie Slaughter draw four W harton depndern, teammotr irlette CoIIuim hIiouIh for thv hall.
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Barbee, Chris. El Campo Leader-News (El Campo, Tex.), Vol. 99, No. 83, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 7, 1984, newspaper, January 7, 1984; El Campo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1018550/m1/7/: accessed June 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Wharton County Library.