Melrose damages Logan's district chances

LOGAN – The Lady Longhorns basketball team suffered a damaging blow for their chance at a district title with a 40-32 loss to Melrose on Friday.

Logan went about nine minutes without a field goal late in the first quarter and most of the second. That set up the Lady Buffalos for a 10-0 scoring run and a double-digit lead. Melrose never trailed the rest of the game.

Logan (16-5, 3-2) still can tie for first place in Class 1A's District 6, but it will need help from others to catch Fort Sumner-House (14-2, 4-0), which has a two-game lead in the standings.

Melrose, winners of four in a row, improved to 11-6, 2-2.

Friday's game, rescheduled from Thursday because of a midweek snowstorm, was a defensive struggle, with neither squad converting more than one 3-point shot.

Melrose coach Caleb King said that was by design for his team.

"This year, we're really built around our defense," he said. "We don't have a huge scorer like a Hailey Martin or girls like that we've had in the past. We've really got to play defense, and they've all bought into that. When we do those kinds of things, it's huge for us."

Isabelle Sena led the Lady Buffs with 10 points.

Logan trailed just 9-6 after one quarter, but the Lady Buffs received a lot of help from 6-footer Paityn Nicholson, who scored six points in the paint during that critical 10-0 run to help give her team a 22-11 lead at intermission.

Eighth-grader Desta Rose led the Lady Longhorns with 10 points, including seven in the second half when her team made its comeback bid. Her two free throws late in the third quarter during a 10-2 Logan run narrowed her team's gap to 24-22.

The Lady Longhorns drew no closer. Melrose made seven free throws in the last two minutes and effectively ran a keep-away offense to milk the clock and draw fouls.

Logan edged Melrose 35-34 at the Lady Buffs' gym on Jan. 20. Asked what the difference was with those games, King said, "Execution and composure."

"At our place, we had a 12-point led in the third quarter and fell apart," he explained. "They got a big lead late, and we couldn't recover from that.

"Today, we settled down in the fourth quarter, executed, made it difficult on them, made a couple of buckets on the back side. We didn't make all our free throws, but we made enough of them to keep our distance."

Logan coach Glynna Strand left the gym shortly after the game. A text Saturday asking her what was the difference between the previous Melrose game and Friday's, she wrote: "Started out cold and couldn't get any balls to drop."

Grady 57, San Jon 41

A slow first half doomed San Jon during a 57-41 district loss Saturday against Grady.

The Lady Broncos stormed to 15-2 lead in the first quarter and had seized control with a 35-11 advantage by intermission.

"We weren't engaged and couldn't buy a basket," San Jon coach Jaree Elliott said.

Elliott said foul trouble also hampered her team, though she praised Dakota Fisher for making big plays and showing "a lot of hustle that fired us up."

Shayla White scored 25 points for Grady, including six 3-pointers.

Sarah Archuleta led San Jon with 12 points, and Bailey McEwen added 11.

San Jon ended the week 4-8, 0-4. Grady improved to 9-10, 2-3.