Ricebirds sweep Blackcats with latest win
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Kris Bagley Taking It To The 'Cats With time running out in the third quarter, Kevin Gooden puts a move on a Bay City defender to drive in for a layup with three seconds left. It was Gooden's ninth point of the quarter. He finished with 21 for the night.

A win in Bay City is a good thing, no matter how pretty it turned out to be.

At the end of Friday night, it was the Ricebirds celebrating a 49-36 victory over the Blackcats even though the game was a constant struggle.

"I'm glad it's over with because we didn't play well," Phillip Spenrath, head coach of the Ricebirds, said. "There's certainly things we can fix, but we had to win it and we've got to win the next one. We have to. Then after that, we'll see what happens. These are musts and we've got to do it."

Both teams had struggles in the first quarter.

A pair of free throws by Kevin Gooden in the game's first minute put the Ricebirds up 2-0. It was the only score either team would have through over two minutes.

With 4:43 left in the quarter, Bay City hit the first field goal of the game, a 3-pointer to move up 3-2. The Blackcats proceeded to take a 7-2 lead over the 'Birds.

El Campo could not score again until 1:29 before the buzzer. Gooden hit Travis Pflughaupt for a layup and El Campo had its first basket to cut the score to 7-4.

By the end of the quarter, Bay City led 9-8.

El Campo made three of 14 baskets while Bay City came through on four of 17. It was an ugly start to a rough game.

Spenrath said a coach has to be patient in times like that. When the offense is not working, the team has to rely on the other side of the ball.

"Well, you've just got to keep playing your defense," the coach said. "In the beginning, we were getting a lot of steals and turnovers but we weren't scoring down there. So we changed our defense up. We were trapping and we tried to play man. We were trying to make something happen on the defensive end."

It worked and the Ricebirds took charge of the second quarter.

El Campo's defense forced five Bay City turnovers while the offense was slightly better. What helped the most for El Campo was free throws.

Anthony Terrell, Jac Axel and Pflughaupt combined to hit seven of eight free-throw attempts.

El Campo outscored Bay City 16-8 in the quarter to take a 24-17 lead at halftime.

The Ricebirds came alive in the third quarter and Gooden was the spark.

Bay City fell to a solid Ricebird attack that made almost half of their shots. El Campo scored a total 15 points in the quarter. Gooden led the team with nine, including a long 3-pointer.

Moving into the fourth quarter, the 'Birds had a 39-24 lead over Bay City.

The Blackcats came back a bit in the fourth. A pair of Ricebird technical fouls helped Bay City cut El Campo's lead.

Bay City topped the 'Birds 12-10 in the quarter, but it was El Campo's night as the Ricebirds won 49-36.

El Campo hosted Foster Tuesday night with a possible playoff position on the line.

As of presstime, the 'Birds were tied for third place with Terry, who defeated Foster 55-48 Friday. A loss to Foster would make it difficult for El Campo to clinch a postseason berth with its last two games of the year coming against Lamar Consolidated and Seven Lakes, the first and second teams in District 24-4A.

A win could put the Ricebirds ahead since Terry plays Lamar Consolidated, who beat the Rangers 48-45 earlier in the season and is undefeated in district play.

RICEBIRD STATS

El Campo 49, Bay City 36

	1st 2nd 3rd			4th	F
EC	8	16	15	10	- 49
BC	9	8	7	12	- 36

EC Leaders

POINTS - Kevin Gooden 21, Travis Pflughaupt 21, Anthony Terrell 2, Landon Appling 2, Larry Williams 2, Jac Axel 1

REBOUNDS - Pflughaupt 20, Terrell 6, Axel 5, Williams 4

ASSISTS - Terrell 4, Gooden 3, Pflughaupt 3

BLOCKS - Pflughaupt 3