GRANTS, N.M. Basketball craze strikes Pirate teams right out of the gate in March.
The Grants High School Boys’ Basketball Team, a 16th seed, had a tall order to fill and ended up with an early first round exit from the Nusenda boys 4A state basketball tournament after losing in the first round to the number 1 team in the state and district rival, the Highland Hornets.
The Hornets did not waste any time in starting their run with the Pirates outscoring them 29-14 in the 1st quarter and though both teams stabilized in the 2nd quarter by halftime the score was 39-18.
The Hornets came out stinging in the 3rd quarter outscoring the Pirates by 19 points and though they only outscored the Pirates by 5 points it was essentially over, the final score was 76-31.
“Highland is a really good team and they showed why that night,” said GHS head boys basketball coach Landon Chavez. “I’m proud of our guys for competing and battling for 4 quarters.”
Chavez, added, “We didn’t get the result we wanted but our kids fought and represented our program in the right way. The Pirates finished the season with a 11-17, 1-7 record.
Lady Pirates
The Lady Pirates also had an early exit after losing to Hope Christian 47-25.
The Lady Pirates made it a game in the first half. In fact in a “defensive” battle the Pirates made it a game in the first half. The Pirates only scored 4 points in the first half and held the home team Huskies to 6 points.
“I feel like we had a good game plan for defense,” said GHS lady Pirates head coach, Jesi Mandagaran. “Our goal was to run them and get them to chase us,” The 2nd quarter was much of the same as the Pirates added another 4 points for a total of 8 points and the Huskies added 7 points for a 13–8 lead.
The 3rd quarter saw both squads step up and start scoring, the Pirates mustered 13 points while the Huskies chipped in 15 points.
Adjustments allowed the Huskies to pull away in the 4th quarter by using their height as rebounds and put backs allowed them to take the game in their direction, outscoring the Pirates 18-4 in that quarter.
“Offensively, it would have been nice to get our open shots to fall—hard to get success in the paint due to their obvious height advantage.”
Coach Mandagaran summed up the game by stating, “Overall, I was definitely happy with our effort, our girls stepped up to the challenge and they got a taste of what state (tournament) is like.”
The Lady Pirates finish their season 11-14, 3-5.