Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
ogan's Camryn Cantrell puts up a shot in the paint while being defended by Grady's Shayla White (left), Juanita Ramirez and Adelina Ramirez during the first round Thursday of the Plateau EPAC Tournament at Logan.
The top-seeded Melrose girls basketball team captured its first Plateau EPAC Tournament title since 2015 with a resounding 69-36 victory Saturday over third-seeded Logan at Texico.
The Lady Buffs, using a relentless press defense, took a double-digit lead in the first quarter and stormed to a 43-14 advantage by halftime.
"We didn't handle the pressure well right from the tipoff," Logan coach Dustin Robertson said. "Second quarter, it just snowballed on us because we could not hit shots. We had too many turnovers to give ourselves a chance."
Desta Rose and Liz Horner each scored eight points to lead the Lady Longhorns, which fell to 10-6.
Isabelle Sena led Melrose with 18 points.
The Lady Buffs, ranked No. 1 in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com, improved to 12-1. Their only loss this season was to Kirtland Central, the top-ranked team in Class 4A.
Logan 46, Fort Sumner 40
At Texico, the Lady Longhorns advanced to the title game of the Plateau EPAC Tournament with a 46-40 semifinal victory Friday over second-seeded and district foe Fort Sumner.
Rose scored 18 points to lead Logan, and teammate Hailee Robertson added 12.
"I thought we played well and played hard," coach Robertson said. "We rebounded and shot free throws pretty well. We really played with confidence and poise."
The Vixens, ranked eighth in Class 1A by MaxPreps.com, fell to 7-5.
Logan 62, Grady 34
The Lady Longhorns grabbed a double-digit lead in the first quarter and built on it during a 62-34 victory over sixth-seeded Grady in the first round Thursday of the Plateau EPAC Tournament at Logan.
Rose led Logan with 14 points, and Horner added 13. A total of 10 Lady Longhorns were in the scoring column.
After a rough previous week with losses to Clayton and Springer, Robertson asked his team to take a different approach against the Lady Bronchos.
"We talked about having fun tonight," he said. "I reminded them after the previous couple of games that we were playing good teams; they shots just weren't falling. I thought we played with joy tonight."
Shayla White led Grady (3-4) with 15 points.
Reserve tourney
The Lady Longhorns next will face Quemado (9-3) at 7 p.m. Thursday at the three-day Reserve Tournament.
Other teams at the event include Melrose, Animas, Alamo Navajo, Rehoboth, Reserve and Mountainair.
