Lady Longhorns survive scare

LOGAN - In the first half of Friday's first-round Class 1A basketball playoff game, it was gut-check time for the Lady Longhorns.

Third-seeded Logan couldn't buy a defensive rebound, its post player was struggling to score and 14th-seeded Evangel Christian/Oak Grove was eyeing an upset.

Logan made a defensive adjustment at intermission and outscored the Lady Eagles 27-10 in the second half to turn a scary game for the Lady Longhorns into a relatively comfortable 51-34 win.

The Lady Longhorns (22-6) advanced to host defending Class 1A champion and sixth-seeded Roy-Mosquero (23-5) at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the quarterfinals. (The game was after the Quay County Sun's deadline.) Logan previously defeated Roy-Mosquero 57-33 on Dec. 3 and 45-41 on Dec. 16.

Evangel Christian/Oak Grove coach Edward Khader indicated his team, which went into Friday with a 19-9 record and was unbeaten in regular-season district play, was a bit miffed by its low seed in the tournament.

"It's always motivation to be the underdog, right?" he said. "We feel our district doesn't get a lot of respect, and the 14 seed was a little disappointing.

"But you've got to give it to Logan; they're one hell of a team. They're a three seed for a reason. We knew we were going to have our hands full coming in."

Logan started fast, storming to a 6-2 lead less than two minutes into the game. Khader called a timeout to regroup.

The Lady Eagles responded with a 15-5 run and led by six points several times in the first half. Evangel's Edan Rogers scored most of her team-high 10 points on offensive rebounds, and her teammates repeatedly burned Logan's defense with slashing moves to the basket.

Logan coach Glynna Strand loathed to admit it, but said her team overlooked the Lady Eagles due to their low seed.

"The way we started, I was worried," she said. "I think we just relaxed too much going into it. In our heads, we were thinking it wasn't going to be tough. Normally, your first-round game when you're a top-four seed is not difficult. We hadn't had a difficult one in the past, and they were aware of that. I'm not sure we were ready for a tough game."

Logan eighth-grader Desta Rose gave her team a much-needed lift in the second quarter. She scored seven of her nine points to help cut her team's deficit to 26-24 by halftime.

Despite the rally, Strand said she still needed to make a defensive adjustment in the second half.

"We weren't handling their drives very well, and so we went to zone and the halfcourt pressure," she said. "That seemed to work; we cranked up our defense a notch, got some breaks there, changed our offense a little bit and gave them a butt-chewing at halftime."

The Lady Longhorns outscored the Eagles 14-4 in the third quarter to take a 38-32 lead. Reece Goldston scored eight points during the period.

"They made a great adjustment in the second half," Khader said. "They went to a trap and 2-3 zone, and we didn't react well."

Compounding Evangel's problems was Rogers being whistled for her fourth foul early in the third quarter.

"That hurt us," Khader said. "She's a big part of our team."

Logan scored 11 more unanswered points in the fourth quarter for a 49-32 lead, its largest of the game. Lady Longhorns center Rilee Nials scored six of her team-high 11 points in the period after struggling for much of the contest.

Strand said her team saw a different officiating crew than usual, and Nials wasn't drawing many foul calls despite plenty of physical contact in the paint.

"She was getting bumped around quite a bit, and they weren't calling them," she said. "You've got to adjust when you get referees from different areas. I told they have to adjust their play; we're going to have different referees from here on out."

Kyra Conway also scored 10 points for Logan.

The winner of Tuesday's game will play the winner of the Maxwell vs. Fort Sumner-House matchup in a 1:30 p.m. semifinal at Bernalillo High School. The championship will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at The Pit in Albuquerque.