PM Cougars play Texline at home
Pringle Morse CISD-Texline
The Cougars and Lady Cougars played a home game against Texline on Tuesday.
The first time the girls played, the score was 22 to 64 in a bad beat. This time, the girls wanted to prove we could hang with these top teams in our district, and we did hang with them for most of the game. We did an excellent job of hitting Dehlilah inside early, leading to some easy looks. We were down 9 to 11 after one quarter, and we continued to stay close in the second quarter trailing 22 to 24 at halftime. We got a little sloppy towards the end of the third quarter and let Texline close the quarter on a 6-0 run to get us down 31 to 41 after three quarters.
We came back out and were aggressive to start the fourth quarter and went on a 6-0 run of our own to trim the deficit to 4 points. We did not look inside as much as we should have in the fourth quarter, but part of that was because they doubled Dehlilah. We ran out of gas at the end of the game and let them get too many secondchance looks, so we ultimately fell 43 to 55. We looked like a much better team this game and had more girls step up and look to score.
Also, a big shout out to Joselin, who was responsible for guarding their leading scorer, and she held her to one point for the entire game, as opposed to 30 in the first game!! However, we let another girl score 28 against us, so we need to do a better job of making in-game adjustments on the fly. Overall, I was much happier with the girls’ effort than the last time we played.
Natalia led us with 22 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists which were all team highs. Dehlilah was next with 12 points, nine rebounds, and six blocks. Kloe had a good game with 4 points and zero turnovers. Steph had 3 points and a couple of rebounds, assists, and steals (while playing through some sickness). Ana provided some good relief minutes and had 2 points, three rebounds, and three assists. NJ got some court time and did a good job defensively, and took care of the ball on offense. Victoria did not see the court but was still a supportive teammate. Joselin did not fill up the stat sheet because she was locking up their best player for the entire game, which was extremely valuable.
The first time the boys played, the score
was 26 to 96. I thought we had gone through the struggle of the first game and that we would come out a little less scared and look to improve from the first outing. I was wrong, and at times we looked much worse than the first time. Our defense left a lot to be desired. Poor closeouts led to easy 3-point opportunities, many second chances, and many points. We also struggled heavily with taking care of the ball with an insane amount of turnovers, leading to easy looks for Texline.
I know Texline is a great team, but we went out and played with no heart or effort, and it reflected on the scoreboard. It is one thing to go into a losing battle with your head held high, knowing you will give everything you have. It is another thing to go into a losing battle with a quitter mentality. We have to MATURE as a young team. We managed to hit some good shots in the second half but responded by letting Texline score immediately after. My issue is with the defense and the effort, which were neither very good. We lost this one 35 to 109, a bad beat that let Texline hit a new season high for points. We have no choice but to shake it off and move on, as we have a big game Friday against Adrian.
Sergio and Eric led the scoring with 14 and 12. Sergio, Reggie, and Ulises led the rebounding with four a piece. Reggie had a team-high seven assists, and Eric had a team-high six steals. Noah, Ulises, and Kevin put some points on the board.
Brett put in some good minutes and hustled when he was in the game, and Edward saw some time, in the end, taking care of the ball and grabbing a rebound.