Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 043, Ed. 1 Tuesday, January 5, 2010 Page: 10 of 10

                                
CM K
Sports
Page 10 ■ Tuesday, January 5, 2010 
Sweetwater Reporter
Mustangs,
LadyStangs
home today
SHS varsity girls basketball team
BY RON HOWELL
Sports Editor
Sweetwater High School's
varsity basketball teams will
make their first joint home
appearance of 2010 when
they host opponents from
separate schools today.
The SHS girls will enter-
tain Roby at 6 p.m., while
the SHS boys will be facing
Grape Creek at 7:30 p.m.
A total of five SHS teams
will actually take the floor.
The JV girls and freshman
boys tip off at 4:30 p.m. in
separate gyms and the JV
boys also play at 6 p.m.
The varsity boys (10-7)
will try to get back into the
win column after losing at
Anson, 49-44, in overtime
on Saturday.
Jason Vause had 15
points and B.J. Walker 10
to pace Sweetwater while
Ken Norman scored seven
points and Jacob Blueford,
Paxton Kelley and Chase
Sims four.
The JV boys (4-10) also
lost, 28-26.
Dylon Adames had five
points while Matt Kitchens,
Tino Martinez and Zzack
Rhodes had four points,
Kevin Sepeda three and
Bobby Mayhar, Ryan Mer-
cer and Anthony Palacios
two apiece.
While the varsity boys' 10
wins are two more than they
had all of last season, the
improvement the girls have
shown has been even more
impressive. They are 11-9
under new head coach Jerry
McSherry after managing
just three wins in 2009.
However, Sweetwater is fac-
ing a Roby team ranked No.
4 in Class lA, Division II in
the latest TABC poll.
The Lady Mustangs over-
came a four-point halftime
deficit in their most recent
game, a 51-38 victory over
Colorado City this past Sat-
urday at the SHS gym.
After a 12-12 tie at the end
of one quarter, Sweetwater
found itself trailing Colorado
City 25-21 at the end of the
second period. But Sweet-
water used a decisive 16-5
third-quarter run to open
up a 37-30 lead and gradu-
ally expanded its lead from
there with a balanced attack
in which eight different
players scored.
Alicia Finn, a 5-10 sopho-
more post, had 14 points
to pace the Lady Mustangs
while Dedra Brown added
11. Taylor McKoy had nine
points, Kinsey Browning
six, Lyndi Locklar five,
Kendra Chowning three,
Lakeisha Robison two and
Aubra Hendrix one.
12
&
em.
1
i
The Sweetwater High School varsity girls basketball team hosts Roby at 6 p.m. today and tips off district play
at Brownwood on Friday. Team members include, back row from left, Kendra Chowning, Dedra Brown, Alicia
Finn, Brittany Lashinski, Taylor McKoy, Alysa Gutierrez; front row, Lakeisha Robison, Aubra Hendrix,
Kinsey Browning, Lyndi Locldar and Morgan Young. Not pictured are player Suede Shirley, head coach Jerry
McSherry, assistant coaches A1 Miller and Amy Clark and managers Amber Kamer, Lamesha Collins, Shureka
Brown, Carly Johnson and Kianna Traylor.
The JV girls also won,
39-13. Candice Hernandez
paced Sweetwater with 17
points while Shelby Cason
had seven, Morgan Runge
five, Kensi Jones four and
Genea Cherry, Briana
Munoz and Laney Wallace
two. Sweetwater was ahead
23-2 at halftime.
Boise State stuns TCll. 17-10
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Boise State
coach Chris Petersen stayed out of the
national title debate after his sixth-ranked
Broncos defeated No. 3 Texas Christian
17-10 in a Fiesta Bowl duel of unbeaten BCS
busters on Monday night.
It's clear he thinks his spunky team can
play with anyone.
"I just know that these kids have the most
unbelievable heart," Petersen said.
Petersen and his staff are known for their
gadget plays, and they stunned the Horned
Frogs with one called "Riddler" — a gutsy
fake punt with game tied 10-10 in the fourth
quarter and the Broncos facing fourth-
and-9 on their own 33-yard line.
Punter Kyle Brotzman hit wide-open
Kyle Efaw with a 30-yard strike, and four
plays later, Doug Martin scored the decisive
touchdown on a 2-yard run.
For the second time in four years, the
Broncos (14-0) won the Fiesta Bowl with a
YouTube-worthy play.
TCU coach Gary Patterson said the
Horned Frogs (12-1) had worked on the
fake in practice, but they were caught flat-
footed.
"The fake punt was a great call," Patterson
said. "They outcoached us on that play."
The trickery evoked memories of Boise
State's BCS debut three years ago, when it
pulled out a passel of gadget plays to defeat
Oklahoma on the same field.
"Our coaches are creative and they dial
stuff up and it works a lot of the time," said
Efaw, whose team became the second in
modern history to go 14-0, joining Ohio
State in 2002.
Unlike the thriller against OU, this game
offered little drama for the first three quar-
ters.
It was the first time two schools from
conferences without automatic BCS bids
have met in one of college football's big-
gest bowls. But for long stretches TCU and
Boise State played as if they belonged in the
Poinsettia Bowl, the site of TCU's 17-16 vic-
tory over Boise State in December 2008.
Area teams return to action
All six of the Nolan County basketball
teams outside Sweetwater will return to
action today, with Highland's teams play-
ing their district openers at home against
Trent and Roscoe's teams resuming dis-
trict play at Albany.
Blackwell's two teams will be travel-
ing to Rotan today. The girls open their
district season Friday by hosting Water
Valley while the boys won't tip off district
play until next Tuesday at Garden City.
The Roscoe boys played their district
opener on Saturday and lost to Winters,
48-38. Roscoe led 10-6, 19-18 and 29-23
at the quarter breaks, but Garden City
won with a 25-8 run in the final quarter.
Caden Smith was Roscoe's top scorer
with 16 points and Zach Gutierrez scored
12. Trae Howard and Gary Williams had
four points and Cody Graham two for the
Plowboys, who saw their overall season
record slip to 5-7.
However, Roscoe's girls squared their
district mark at 1-1 after they beat Winters
42-40 on Saturday. The Plowgirls, who
have a 4-15 overall record, began district
play back on Dec. 18 by losing to Bronte.
Sara Kingston had 11 points, Lindsey
Williams 10 and Cristina Villa eight for
Roscoe, which trailed by a point (22-21) at
halftime. Jacinda Morales had six points,
Kim Norris five and Lynnsi Moses two.
Expanded role pays off for Phillips
IRVING (AP) - Maybe
the most significant move
for the Dallas Cowboys after
missing the playoffs last
season — aside from rid-
ding themselves of Terrell
Owens — was when coach
Wade Phillips officially took
on the role of defensive
coordinator.
That might also be what
ensures him another season
as head coach.
The NFC East champion
Cowboys (11-5) head into
the playoffs and a rematch
against the Philadelphia
Eagles (11-5) with consecu-
tive shutouts for the first
time in the team's 50 seasons
— and the first NFL team
to do so since Tennessee
in 2000. The shutouts also
came after a 24-17 victory
at New Orleans, the league's
most prolific offense which
then had a 13-0 record.
"I've been fortunate to be
around a lot of good defen-
sive teams, and this team is
right up there with them,"
Phillips said Monday, doing
his best to defer any credit.
"Itreallyis about theteam.
It's not about me," Phillips
said. "It's not a personal
deal with me. I believed in
this team the whole time
and I think everybody's
known that. They've come
through."
Phillips is in the final sea-
son of the three-year con-
tract he signed when he
replaced Bill Parcells, but
his deal includes a team
option for next season.
While Cowboys owner
Jerry Jones has yet to defin-
itively say Phillips will be
back next season, the domi-
nating surge into the play-
offs has raised the likeli-
hood of that happening.
"It's always been about
that arrow going up," Jones
said after the Cowboys
beat Philadelphia 24-0 on
Sunday to clinch the divi-
sion title.
"At this particular time,
he's looking good."
That wasn't exactly
the case only weeks ago,
after the Cowboys began
December with consecutive
losses and dropped out of
first place in the NFC East.
Or at the end of last sea-
son, when the Cowboys lost
at Philadelphia 44-6 in a
regular-season finale that
determined who went to the
playoffs.
During the previous two
seasons, the Cowboys' defen-
sive coordinator was Brian
Stewart, who was on San
Diego's staff when Phillips
was defensive coordinator
there. When Stewart was
dumped last year, Phillips
made himself the only NFL
head coach who is also the
defensive coordinator.
Jones calls that the most
significant offseason move
that led to success this sea-
son.
"The decision for him to
just completely take over
the defensive coordinator's
role, both technically and
perception-wise," Jones
said.
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