Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Logan's Kassi Foote tries to wrestle the ball away from Dora's Faith Jasso as Logan's Jordan Hines moves in to help defend during a Class 1A girls basketball state tournament game Friday at Logan.
LOGAN - The top-seeded Logan girls basketball team took care of business quickly during a 63-20 victory in the first round Friday of the Class 1A state tournament against 16th-seeded and proverbial sacrificial lamb Dora.
The Lady Longhorns (23-4) took a double-digit lead midway through the first quarter, led by 20 midway through the second and prompted the start of the running-clock "mercy rule" when their advantage reached 35 points in the third.
Karli Webb and Kyndall Ragland led Logan's balanced attack with 12 points each. Kassi Foote added 11 points. In all, nine Lady Longhorns scored, as the team's second-stringers received plenty of playing time during the rout.
Logan plays eighth-seeded and defending state champion Tatum (20-9) in the quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Bernalillo High School. Logan defeated Tatum 46-22 on Jan. 9 during the EPAC Tournament.
The winner of that game plays the winner of the Pine Hill (21-7) vs. Roy/Mosquero (22-4) matchup at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho. The final is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at Dreamstyle Arena, aka The Pit, in Albuquerque.
Three other teams in Logan's district - second-seeded Melrose, third-seeded Fort Sumner and 11th-seed Clovis Christian - also advanced to Wednesday's quarterfinals.
The Lady Coyotes, who previously lost to Logan 53-35 on Jan. 16, ended their season 9-15. Randi Crandall led Dora with 15 points. Dora coach Shelly Kay quickly exited the gym after the game and wasn't available for comment.
Logan coach Glynna Strand welcomed an easy win and a solid performance by her team.
"These games don't give me gray hairs," Strand said. "We played well."
The game was the first for the Lady Longhorns since a 45-37 loss the previous week to Melrose in the championship game of the district tournament. Logan went more than 10 minutes without scoring in the second half. But Strand said she didn't change her approach much after the loss.
"We've talked about upping our intensity and worked a lot on defensive stuff," she said about practices after the loss. "We've just been focusing on our same stuff. In that game, we just had a dry, dry shooting spell. Provided that doesn't happen again, I think we'll be fine."
Logan jumped to an 8-2 lead with a strong inside bucket by Ragland and consecutive 3-pointers by Foote and Jordan Hines. Ragland scored 10 points during the first period to help stake her team to a 23-6 advantage.
Meanwhile, the Lady Coyotes struggled to establish any sort of offense and had trouble moving the ball upcourt against Logan's full-court press. They made just four field goals during the first half.
Five Lady Longhorn players scored in the second period to fatten their lead to 36-10 by intermission.
Webb scored all 12 of her points in the third quarter, including a 3-point shot and a traditional three-point play after a foul. Logan led 57-14 at the end of the period.
