“Bernalillo too much for lady Pirates”

The Bernalillo lady Spartans (4- 0) were too much to handle for the lady Pirates last Tuesday in the Pirates home opener at the Port of the Pirates – the Pirates lost 73-33. The lady Spartans set the tempo for the night with a 17-10 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.

“Our first half strategy was to go man to man and concentrate on slowing down number eleven (J.Aragon),” said GHS girls basketball head coach Douglas “Dougie” Hickman of that first quarter. Despite their efforts and energy the lady Pirates were unable to contain the lady Spartans or mount an effective offense leading to a halftime score of 46-21.

“We talked about changing to a one three one zone to close down the driving lanes. Closing out on perimeter shooters and out rebounding Bernalillo,” said Hickman of his halftime talk. The Pirates were able to hold Aragon to 9 points in the second half – all treys. The third quarter score was 61-28.

A trio of Spartans scored in double digits to lead the 30 point assault Tuesday. Senior Juliana Aragon cranked out 32 points for the Spartans followed by Gabby O’Hara who had 17 and Leah Valdez chipped in 10 points to round out the top three scorers.

The lady Pirates were led by Aubrey Trujillo and Skyler Charlie who had nine points apiece followed by Aaliegh Albert with nine points and Ebony Chavez with five points.

Next up for the lady Pirates will be the lady Kirtland Central Broncos on Tuesday, December 7 at the Port of the Pirates. The lady Broncos come in at 2-2 and are fresh off a 46-19 loss to Paige, Arizona. “This is going to be another tough game. But these lady Pirates have a lot of heart and that is how they play. We will make our adjustments and we will definitely come out playing hard,” said Hickman of that upcoming game.

The GHS boys’ basketball team is 2-0 headed into their first home game of the season on Tuesday, December 7 against the Miyamura Patriots (0-4). The Patriots are coming off two recent losses. On December 4, they lost 52-46 to the Alamogordo Tigers (1-4) and then had a 43-36 loss on December 3 to the Deming Wildcats (2-3).

“We scrimmaged them this summer (Miyamura) and won in sudden death---their current record of 0-4 doesn’t reflect the quality of the team they are,” said Landon Chavez GHS boys head coach. “We have to control the tempo early on and play our style of basketball. We are prepared for tons of different looks on defense.”

Pirates grapplers participated at the Los Lunas Duals meet on Saturday, December 4 at Los Lunas High School and results are pending.