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Terry trips up Ricebirds in district opener
The Ricebirds lost to the Rangers 74-58 in the opener of district basketball play. "It was a game we hoped we could win so we could be in the driver's seat," head basketball coach Philip Spenrath said. "Now they are. I'll be surprised if Seven Lakes and Lamar don't win out. Those are teams we're going to have to play good. They're probably better than Terry is." Dropping the first district came means an uphill climb for the Ricebirds if they want to claim a playoff spot. El Campo has a brief break against the elite teams, giving time to regroup. The 'Birds hosted Bay City last night and will travel to Richmond Friday to play Foster. Neither game will be easy, but Lamar Consolidated and Seven Lakes are widely considered to be the district front-runners. The 'Birds will play them both next week. Terry provided a big challenge for the Ricebirds. In the first quarter, the Rangers' defensive efforts and a Ricebird slump resulted in a 16-11 lead for Terry.
With 5:12 left before halftime, Anthony Terrell connected with Kevin Gooden for a lay-up and cut the lead to 24-21 and force a Terry time-out. Gooden completed the comeback about 40 seconds later with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 24-24. The Rangers pulled back ahead in a quick spurt to take a 36-29 lead at halftime. Terry came out hot in the third quarter. The rangers scored 11 of the first 13 points and hit three 3-pointers to take a 47-33 lead. El Campo called a time-out to work through strategy, and it helped. The 'Birds came back on solid rebounding by Travis Pflughaupt and defense by Larry Williams to cut the lead to 49-46 and force Terry to call a time-out. Once back on the court, the Rangers ran into another spurt and pulled away from the 'Birds for good. Terry had a 57-48 lead to start the fourth quarter and the Ricebirds desperately took risky shots that just did not fall. Terry finished with a 74-58 win. "I think we got frustrated," Spenrath said. "They hit a couple of threes in the third quarter and that lead went up to 15. Then we started forcing shots. I think they played real hard - they always play real hard - but in the end, they were very frustrated." The outside shooting and overall guard play helped secure the win for Terry. "They hit their threes," Spenrath said. "They got up on us, tried to spread it out and put us in a bind. They were a little quicker than we were at the guard position and when they penetrated past our guards, in the post, Pflughaupt would step over and they were able to dump it off. The bottom line is that we couldn't give up that lead early." A success on the night was El Campo's overall post play. Terry's Kene Anyigbo gave the Ricebirds trouble last year as a freshman. This year, he gained some weight, but Williams and Jac Axel covered him well and saved Pflughaupt the stress of having to work on Anyigbo defensively. Instead, Pflughaupt battled with the sophomore on offense and pulled down several rebounds. "I don't think the big boy really hurt us except on the put-backs," Spenrath said. "He dunked a few. When I looked at the half, he only had 6 points. He had some hammer dunks, but in years past, they would post that kid up so I thought Larry could play behind him and Travis could help him. I think that paid off." The 'Birds held Anyigbo to 14 total points. With district play progressing, El Campo now must hope to take one game from Lamar or Seven Lakes or at least defeat Terry when they come to town Jan. 29. "That's what we've got to hope for now - a split," Spenrath said. |
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