El Campo Leader-News (El Campo, Tex.), Vol. 97, No. 87, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 23, 1982 Page: 5 of 28
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El Campo Leader-News, El Campo, TX, Sat., Jan. 23,1962
Page 5-A
Ricebird Girls, Boys Keep Win Streaks Alive
By JONATHAN FE1GEN
In one of the strangest games
ever played in Ricebird Gym-
nasium, the El Campo girls walk-
ed away with a 75-30 win Thurs-
day that left the small crowd
wondering what had happened.
Ricebird Coach Rhonda
Priesmeyer called the fourth
quarter, when the game went way
beyond the realm of the sublime
and became completely ridi-
culous, “weird” and “strange.”
“I’m still at a loss." she said
after some time to try and make
sense out of Katy-Taylor Coach
Sharon Witt’s fourth quarter tac-
tics. “I’ve never seen that before.
I’ve seen teams get mad and
leave the gym, but I’ve never seen
that.
“I’m still not sure what she
(Witt) was so mad about.”
The absurdity started with
about 5Vi minutes left in the game
when Witt thought El Campo’s
Loressia Allen hit one of her
players. Actually, from the same
vantage point, it was pretty ob-
vious that Allen pointed instead of
hit but Witt stormed onto the court
to complain anyway.
Moments later the Taylor
Coach demanded a timeout and
set up a stall to protect her 40
point deficit. With the Taylor
players under very strict orders
not to try to score, the Ricebird
players did not know whether to
sit down, or try for steals. They
chose the latter route and things
soon became ridiculous.
The Mustang players began
purposely committing turnovers
so they could laugh when El Cam-
po missed layups. While Witt
ushered her freshman and junior
varsity players out of the gym,
her varsity howled at Ell Campo
misses (which were usually put
back up for scores), cheers and
mascot.
Eventually the Ricebirds got
the ball into Allen’s hands on fast
breaks and the laughter stopped.
Allen does not miss layups and
finished Thursday’s contest(?)
with 29 points.
“I couldn’t believe it,”
Priesmeyer said. “I’ve seen
teams that were getting beat,
stall, but I’ve never seen them
quit trying.”
Witt was unavailable for com-
ment as she hurried out of El
Campo as soon as the buzzer
sounded. The Mustang reserves
left the gym with :03 left without
changing out of their uniforms
and with a teammate shooting
foul shots.
The Ricebirds took most of the
fight out of the Mustangs in the
first half when their half-court
press was devastating. If El Cam-
po did not come up with a steal on
the first trap, they usually did
with the second. They led 24-7
after the first quarter.
“Our press was very effective
again,” Priesmeyer said. “It ate
’em up. They tried to play man
(defense) but we were quicker
than they are.”
They were also smarter.
Although they did not take the
game seriously from the outset,
the Ricebirds did hustle all night.
Felisha Estall came off the
bench and scored 15 points on hus-
Crime Can Pay
Loressia Allen steals the ball from a Katy-Taylor ball-handler and heads
downcourt. Allen scored 29 points to key El Campo's 75-3 win over the
Mustangs Thursday night. Phyllis Williams is the Ricebird on the right
following the play.
tie as she followed missed shots
all evening. Phyllis Williams was
also tough inside and finished with
15 while Bonnie Beard had eight
points.
Nancy Bradford led Katy-
Taylor with nine points.
The final strange move by Witt
came with :27 left. Although trail-
ing by 44 points, 73-29, she called
timeout. During the timeout she
lectured a player for trying to
score when she specifically told
her not to.
“It wasn’t a very pretty game,”
Priesmeyer said. “It wasn’t
smooth but we obviously did some
things right.
“We nrod to play better Monday
against Bay City.”
The Ricebirds will face the first
half 14-AAAA champion Black
Cats in Bay City. El Campo has
improved a great deal since the
teams' first meeting but the Black
Cats are the cream of the district
crop.
The Ricebird junior varsity won
a more normal contest Thursday
night when they topped the
Mustangs 36-24.
The only thing out of the or-
dinary in this game was the
relatively low scoring of the
Ricebirds who often reach 36 by
halftime. Coach Barbara Buck
said “nothing would fall
underneath the basket.
“I think it was the ball,” she
joked.
Carrie Slaughter had no gripes
about the ball and tossed in 18
points. Yolanda Monroe had 11
points with Kelly Korenek adding
four.
Birdiets Trounce Travis
The Birdlet seventh grade
teams trounced Port Lavaca
Travis Thursday with the “A”
teamers winning 26-6 and the “B”
squad coming away with a 44 8
victory.
The “A” game was dominated
by the El Campo defense that held
Travis to two points or less in
every quarter.
Zedrick Me Clintock was the
game’s high scorer with 11 points
while Zeb Bennett added six.
Kego and Irwin split Travis' six
points.
The “B” game was an even
greater rout with the Birdlets
holding a 28-4 edge by halftime.
Jarred Owens led El Campo
with 10 points with Joe Jasso ad-
ding six. Steve Gallia, who along
with Jasso were the leading re-
bounders, added five. A. C.
Rooker also had five points.
Kenneth Salinas and George
Appling had four points apiece
with John Shorter and Marc Glott
getting three points.
“The boys played a very good
ball game,” Coach Robert Hmcir
said. “It seemed like everything
we threw up went in.”
There is an accurate expression
that says when it rains it pours.
If that is true, the eighth grade
“A” team of El Campo must think
they are in the midst of a monsoon
season after Tuesday’s 74-20
whitewash from Lamar
The Birdlets trailed throughout
as Lamar jumped out to a 23-3
first quarter lead that was never
challenged. Lamar actually miss-
ed 36 foul shots to keep their scor-
ing under the 100 point mark.
Larry Walton led El Campo
with six points whith Ricky Kana
and Robert Davidson getting four
points apiece. Elliott had 17 for
Lamar.
The loss dropped El Campo’s
record to 0-9.
The eighth grade “B” team
came much closer to victory than
the other El Campo eighth
graders but their fourth quarter
comeback fell short giving the
Birdlets a 27-21 loss to Lamar.
Keith Metcalf led El Campo
with seven points with Brian
Hlavaty adding five. Lopez had 10
for the victors.
The seventh grade “A” team
did not have the easy time of it
against Lamar that they had
earlier in the week as turnovers
keyed their 32-19 loss
Me Clintock led El Campo in
this game also as he tossed in six
points with Bennett getting five.
Harris had 14 for Lamar.
Lamar came up with nine points
in the fourth quarter of the
seventh grade “B” game to beat
El Campo 16-12.
Jasso and Rodney Shelton had
six points for the Birdlets.
The Ricebird boys ran their
winning streak to three games
Tuesday night when they hung on
to a 61-56 win against West Colum-
bia at home.
The Ricebirds actually led by 22
points in the contest as they
played what Coach Bobby Craig
called “three good quarters of
basketball.” Things got out of
hand after that as the Ricebirds
started playing like the
Roughnecks in the fourth quarter.
“After the close game at home
last week and then playing very
consistently at Santa Fe,” Craig
said, “when I saw the 20 point
lead, 1 thought we’d get a 30 point
lead. Then a 40 point lead.
“I really thought we’d blow
their tales out of here.”
That did not happen, however,
as the Ricebirds began throwing
the ball away and giving up easy
baskets. Most of those easy
baskets were put in by Roughneck
center Jeff Robinson who finished
with a game high 24 points.
In the end, the Ricebirds pro-
tected their lead by holding on to
the ball and getting key foul shots
by Paul Foley. The Ricebird point
guard hit five of five foul shots in
the contest.
Jeff Knebel, who had been on a
tear of late, fouled out of the game
with 7:31 left in the third quarter.
The Ricebird center had 19 points
but his presence under the
basket was missed when West
Columbia made their move.
In Knebel’s stead Clyde Gary
ruled the backboards with hustle
and aggresive play if not physical
stature. Gary was playing in his
first game on the varsity in the
1981-82 season although he did
start every district game a year
ago.
His return adds a needed
weapon to Craig’s arsenal as the
muscular guard-foward-center is
a good rebounder and an excellent
passer.
“Clyde had a strong game,”
Craig said. “We went from a
mediocre rebounding team to a
strong one in one night. We had
been averaging 23 rebounds which
is very sad. But add Clyde’s 12 re-
bounds and we average 35 and
that is strong rebounding.”
Gary’s return became more im-
portant than expected because of
Knebel’s foul trouble. The
Ricebirds scored one quick bucket
after their center’s departure but
then went cold. They remained at
53 points for five minutes while
Columbia crept back into conten-
tion.
Score they did, and Craig was
happy to tuck his third district win
away and prepare for the second
season and Willowridge. “A win is
a win is a win,” he said.
Booker Runnells and Gary both
finished with 13 points with Foley
adding 11. Mike Johnson had nine
points. Kevin Cadenhead had 12
points for the Roughnecks but the
Ricebird defense on the 6-3 guard
was outstanding.
Cadenhead had been averaging
18 points per game this year but
the Ricebirds played him well. He
had just four second half points.
The El Campo defense had a lot
to do with the early lead also as
they pressured the Roughnecks
all over the court.
“We hurried them into taking
some bad shots,” Craig said.
“They stayed in high gear and ran
it up. They didn’t take advantage
of their size (Columbia starts two
6-4 players and two at 6-3). They
just hurried the ball down and
shot it.”
Craig also cited his team’s
“great hustle” as the Ricebirds
took five charges and dove after
11 loose balls.
Louise Romps Panthers
The Louise boys’ basketball
team jumped into first place in
the district 26-AA race Tuesday
night when they opened their
district season with a 55-30 romp
over Danbury.
The Hornets used their ten-day
layoff to good advantage as they
turned on the defensive pressure
to key the win.
With Joe Malota pressing the in-
bounds pass and John Francis,
Elton Callis and, Howard Callis
picking their men up all over the
court, Coach Tom Lovejoy’s
troops made life miseable for the
visitors all evening.
“We just defensed ’em well,”
Lovejoy said “our press really
hurt them ”
As a result the Hornets led by
12, 30-18. by halftime and they
began experimenting with their
offense. The Louise attack has not
been as consistent as their hustle
and defense, so Lovejoy decided
to fast break to get more shots in
general and more easy shots in
particular.
“We ran more because we’ve
not been shooting well,” Lovejoy
said. “Elton (Callis) just ran the
break to perfection. When Timmy
(Ochoa) was in, he ran the offense
about as well.”
The other adjustment Lovejoy
made in his suddenly effective of-
fense was in response to a Pan-
ther defensive change.
Danbury began sagging several
players on Louise's scoring
machine, Daryl Popp. With a big
lead backing him up, Lovejoy
called for a spread offense, forc-
ing the Panthers to play defense.
Despite playing against a Pan-
ther defense designed to stop him.
Popp led all scorers with 18
points. He also pulled down 15 re-
bounds in the contest to lead the
Hornets.
Francis chipped in eight points
each with Callis getting eight
points apiece. Robbie Vajdos
came off the Louise bench to grab
seven rebounds and toss in four
points.
Homettes Struggle Against Danbury
The Louise girls continued to
play poison ivy basketball Tues-
day night As soon as they clear
up ooe area, another becomes in-
fected adding to Coach Linda Cun-
ningham’s headaches and the
Homettes district losses.
The 26-25 lass to Danbury drop
ped the Homettes district record
to 0-3 heading into last night 's con
last with Industrial In each loss
they have solved one problem on-
ly to have another spring up
“We cure one desses* and
another comas up,” Cunningham
said. “We had only three bad
pasaas (a problem that plagued
Louise last week) but we lost the
ball 16 times They (Danbury)
either stole the ball or w* fumbled
it or we dribbled rff our nose bet
we lost the ball way toe much
The other aspect of the Hornet
Homettes “took good shots” Cun-
ningham said. “We just couldn't
score.”
That kind of shooting
necessitates good rebounding^
While the Homettes did well off
the boards and certainly worked
hard, the same could be said of
the Panthers Both teams grabb-
ed 21 defensive rebounds with
Danbury coming up with a two
carom edge on the offensive end.
nine to seven
Michelle Holub provided a great
deal of Louise's rebounding
strength as she pulled down 10 re^
bounty to go with her five points
Felisha Callis led the Homettes
with 13 points
Defensively. Louise played in
an effective triangle and two
satup with Hornette players
covering Donna Garvin 'two
points) and Susan Tribble
(scersleas > man toman.
“We played even with them the
whole game.” Cunningham said
The MUonatty was very wind We
ran the offense well We ran the
defense well It’s a matter of look-
ing at the stats and seeing very
poor shooting That 17 percent
shooting tells the story/'
ECJV Victors
The junior varsities of West Col-
umbia and El Campo battled into
overtime before the Ricebird*
emerged with a 45-43 win.
The winning basket came on a
tough shot by Todd Jaksch with
08 left in the three minute over-
time Jaksch took a pas* from
Mark Clark with 04 left and
drove to the baseline He swished
in the pull up jumper to give the
Ricebird their second consecutive
win
Hex Williams tied the game at
33 with 48 left to play with two
pressure foul shots. He led the
Ricebirds with 16 points while
Jaksch added 14 Gilbert Brigham
had eight for El Campo
IjHiisr Horn rIs
The louise basketball team lor ISSI. i rant How : fl*fl Elton Callis. John
Francis Timm* 1 trims. Homy Bobinson Jimms Barrera Maraud Haw:
Howard < allls. Joe Malota. liar si I'opp. Bobbie Vajdos and Hmre Hon
ilk
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Barbee, Chris. El Campo Leader-News (El Campo, Tex.), Vol. 97, No. 87, Ed. 1 Saturday, January 23, 1982, newspaper, January 23, 1982; El Campo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth999998/m1/5/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Wharton County Library.