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By N. Waddell
The Hayden Junior High basketball season came to an end last week with a sweep of the games against the Junior High Vandal teams from Miami Junior High School.
The seventh grade Lady Lobos started the action against the Vandals breaking out to a 7 to 3 lead after a quarter of play behind the scoring of Brandi Lopez. Lopez continued her scoring in the second period with her teammates playing good defense and rebounding to take a 12 to 5 lead into the half time break. The break cooled off the Lady Lobos going scoreless in the third period but the defense played hard holding the Vandals to only two third period points to take a 12 to 7 lead into the final stanza. The Vandals and Lobos played even in the final period to give the Lady Lobos a hard earned 16 to 11 win. Only two Lady Lobos were able to score with Brandi Lopez doing most of the damage with 12 points. Jayden Gonzales scored four points for the team.
The seventh grade boys’ teams were on the court next and this game turned into a close battle. The Vandals took a first quarter led of 4 to 8 and protected the lead to go into the half time break leading 8 to 12. The Lobos came out in the third period determined not to lose cutting the Vandal lead to 16 to 18 at the end of the third period and outscored and out hustled the Vandals in the final quarter to win the game 25 to 22. Julian Cruz was a force for the Lobos scoring 13 points to lead the Lobo scoring. Emitt Sims playing tough defense scored five points Mario Mariscal had three points with Julian Corona and Joaquin Camarena each getting two points.
The only rout of the night was turned in by the Lady Lobo eighth grade team over the Vandal girls team. Led by the scoring of Lexy Gomez and Leticia Vargas, the Lady Lobos broke out to an 11 to 4 lead at the end of one quarter of play. The defense of the entire team came up big in the second quarter holding the Vandals scoreless while the Lobo offense increased the lead to 19 to 4 at the half time break. Gomez continued with her hot hand leading the Lobos to a big 32 to 9 lead going into the final period of play. The Lobo defense again came up big in the fourth period again holding the Lady Vandals scoreless while the offense put the game away to win 40 to 9. Lexy Gomez had the hot hand for the Lobos pumping in 18 points with Leticia Vargas and Brandi Lopez each getting six points. Jayden Gonzales had a three pointer for the Lobos with Aliyana Perez, a force under the boards, Extel Sanchez and Kayla Islava each scoring two points. Linda Kame had one point in the win.
The score does not indicate a close game but the action was hot and heavy with neither team able to break away with a big lead in the boy’s eighth grade game between the Vandals and Lobos. Chris Rabago had probably the best game of the season in leading the Lobos to the win. The Lobos broke out to a slim two point 8 to 6 lead over the Vandals after one period of play and increased the lead by two at the halftime break 17 to 13. The Vandals and Lobos played each other even in the third quarter with the Lobos protecting their four point lead going into the final quarter 27 to 23. The final quarter was a show of team work by the Lobos as six different Lobos scored to hold back the charging Vandals and hand them a 40 to 32 defeat. Chris Rabago, playing hard on both ends of the court did his entire teammates, led Lobo scoring with 21 points. Santiago Pina and Julian Cruz pumped in six points apiece with Adrian Encinas getting three points and Mario Chavez and Frankie Valencia each getting two points.
The wins ended the season for both of the boys teams; neither qualified for the league tournament. The Lobo girls teams, however, will continue their season with both qualifying for the Central Junior High League Tournament to be played on the San Carlos basketball courts this coming Saturday, Feb. 2. The seventh grade Lobo team will go into the tournament as the number one seed and the eighth grade team qualified as the number four seed in the tournament. Game times and opponents were not known at this time. Check with the school for the game times.
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