Staff Report
Chaves County Sports Report
Bethany Johnston (41) puts a move on Jenni Dewey (34), dribbling to the right to get around her and is fouled.
(CCSR photo by David R. Rocha)
ARTESIA — Goddard girls coach Greg Torres and his team spent many hours breaking down film of their last game against the Artesia Lady Bulldogs in preparation for Friday night's game.
And it paid off, especially early in the game. The Rockets pressured Artesia in the backcourt, forced turnovers and found themselves in this game, trailing early 11-6, and getting the respect from Artesia.
Artesia though, used its experience to pull away for a 50-23 District 4-4A win.
"We put ourselves in a position to make things happen," said Torres. "I was really proud of the girls, they’re coming around."
As the game entered the second period, Goddard wasn't going anywhere, staying within six points, and it was beginning to frustrate Artesia
The turning point of the game came when Artesia's Candace Pollard became entangled with Goddard's Gabriella Baker. Pollard pushed off and Baker reacted by taking a swipe at her. Had her right hand connected George Foreman would've been proud.
“That's not how we play here; I sat her down for the rest of the game," said Torres.
As a result, Pollard was granted technical free throws which she converted.
The play seemed to give Artesia a boost it needed to distance themselves from the upstart Rockets. By halftime Artesia led, 24-15. Then an impressive 17-2 run in the third quarter iced the game for Artesia.
“We couldn’t recover from that,” Torres said. “We wanted to come out a lot better at the half and try to close that gap and the opposite happened.”
The highest-scoring Rocket was Cheyenne Kyser with six. Sara Garcia and Rebecca Trujillo each had four.
Another big difference between the squads was free throws.
The Rockets were a mere 5-for-18 while the ‘Dogs were 16-for-21. Still, Torres seemed happy.
“It was a real good solid first half. We handled the pressure really well,” he said. “We had a lot of open shots tonight. Real pleased with the first half; second half is pretty bad.”
Next up for Goddard is district leading Roswell.
"We're here for the long run," Torres said. "When we go into Roswell Tuesday, it will be a different experience for me, I know those girls very well, and my girls (Goddard) will be ready."
Game time is 5:30 p.m., the pre-game show begins at 5:15 p.m. on KBIM Radio.com.
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