Karen Boehler
CCSR writer/editor
Mason Miller (42) had a strong effort Thursday, picking up 22 points.
(CCSR phots by Karen Boehler)
Mescalero’s boys showed they not the same team they were only a few years ago, staying close to Gateway through three quarters Thursday, before finally falling 58-38.
“They’re a very aggressive, scrappy team and our goal tonight was just to come out and run our offense, which we did most of the night,” said Gateway coach Troy Grant. “Sometimes we forgot about it and made some turnovers, but they did very well.”
Warrior Ben Thomas set the tone of the game, opening the scoring with a 3-pointer and a 10-0 run put GCS up 15-2.
But the Chiefs scored the final six points of the quarter to trail 15-8 after one.
The teams played almost even in the second, with Thomas getting another trey and the Chiefs getting another six straight to end the half with Gateway up 24-16.
The third quarter saw both sides go on runs, with Gateway’s Mason Miller tallying 10 of his game-high 22 points and Mescalero bookmarking a Warrior 10-0 string with a pair of 3s.
Warrior Ryan Rodriguez takes a shot from just inside the 3-point line.
(CCSR phots by Karen Boehler)
Gateway led 42-32 after three, but Chief leading scorer Glen Yellowcloud opened the second half by literally taking the ball out of Warrior Garrett Gill’s hands to score the first points of the stanza.
Mescalero cut the Gateway lead to seven before Thomas scored six in a row to spark a 14-1 game-ending run.
Gateway started the game with senior Logan Krasowsky nursing a sprained ankle he injured Tuesday vs. Tatum, but while he was scoreless, he played and was ready for action.
“I didn’t want to play him the whole game tonight, but he’s doing fine,” Grant said. “He was running good.”
While Krasowsky was shut out, Miller tallied 22 points, Mehrdod Khavari 14 and Thomas 12. Yellowcloud was the only Chief in double figures with 16.
Knowing a big game vs. Valley is on tap Friday, did Grant or his team do anything different?
“The only thing we did different was so we didn’t burn ourselves out tonight,” he said “We didn’t press and all of that, which we probably would have done. I think that would probably have created more turnovers, but we did very well defensively. We had a lot of steals so I think it went fine.”
Mescalero assistant coach Randy Mims said as a whole, the team has “improved quite a bit,” but that they “could have played better. They’ve played better before, but they had a decent game.”
Next up for Gateway is Valley at the Yucca Center at 7 p.m. Friday, and while it’s not certain a victory over the Lions would catapult the Warriors into second place, Grant isn’t worrying about that.
“Our goal is to come away with a win,” he said. “I don’t know what the rules are on the point spread, because it’s been a while since we've done it, but our goal is to just walk off the court with a win. No matter what. It’s more up here than anything.”
For more sports news, go to Chaves County Sports Report