Loboes Face Foul Trouble in Stockton Tournament
    By Jon Fulbright, Staff Writer ~~ The Monahans News, December 19, 2006

The finals of the Fort Stockton Tournament were a bit of a disappointment for the Monahans Loboes, though with two of his five starters out, coach Thomas Clay expects things to be different when the teams meet in District 2-3A play, especially on offense for the Loboes.

Sean Merrick scored six of Monahans' eight points in the opening period, which ended with the Panthers taking a two-point lead on a late basket by Omar Calderon.  But hardly anything would fall for the Loboes in the middle periods, as Fort Stockton went up by 13 at halftime and led by 18 at the end of the third period before winning the tournament title by 58-35 final score.

"We had people playing out of position, because (Arnold) Rodriguez was not here and (Clayton) Hires was not here,"  Clay said.  "We tired to get people to play at positions they were not used to, but they couldn't do it."

Calderon, who was named the tournament's MVP, had eight of his 17 points in the early going.  His lay-up and a 3-point jumper by J.D. Granado early in the second period helped Fort Stockton outscore Monahans by a 14-3 margin in the period to take a 24-11 halftime lead.

Fouls and foul shooting were both problems for the Loboes.  Monahans was just 10-for-25 from the line, while having problems with some of the officials' calls, with Merrick getting whistled for a technical foul just before halftime on a play where Ricky Rivera was thrown out of bound while battling Sergio Corral for a loose ball.

"Both were pretty frustrating," he said of the shooting and the officiating.  "But the officials don't shoot for us, the officials don't block for us, and the officials don't play defense for us.  We've got to be able to play through those things."

Fort Stockton would get hit with a bench technical foul as the second half opened.  Cameron Bennett hit both free throws, and Chris Bates then scored and was fouled six seconds into the third period.  His 3-point play cut the lead to 24-16, but Justin Patterson then missed two shots from the line 30 seconds later, and Fort Stockton went down and got their own three-point play, on a lay-up and foul shot by Sal Flores.  The Panthers would outscore the Loboes from there by a 13-6 margin, and both teams traded foul shots over the final period.

Tony Dipasquale, who was called up from the JV with Rodriguez and Hires absent, ended up tying Bennett for high-point honors for Monahans with seven, while Flores also was in double figures for Fort Stockton with 14.

Bates and Patterson ended up on the all-tournament team for Monahans, and despite the loss in the finals, Clay said "We had a good tournament," thanks to a 56-52 quarterfinal win over Fort Hancock and a 42-37 victory over Tornillo.

Merrick had 18 points and Rodriguez 11 in the win over Fort Hancock.  Merrick could have had more, but struggled from the line in the game, going 5-for-16, while the other Loboes were 17-for-22 from the line.  Fort Hancock also had their problems from the line going 17-for-30 in the game. 

Against Tornillo, Rodriguez  had 15 points and Merrick 10, as the Loboes took a 21-16 half-time lead and made that stand up against the Coyotes,  who had only seven players suited up and lost two to fouls before the game was over.  Roger Villalobos led Tornillo with 11 points.  Monahans also had a strong game form the foul line, hitting 15 of 16 shots, while the Coyotes were 4-for-11 from the line.

"We played better in the first two games, and controlled the tempo better than against Fort Stockton," Clay said.  "We had a size advantage against Fort Hancock and Tornillo, but tonight we were just out-sized."

Fort Stockton had advanced to the finals by rallying in the final minute against Pecos on Thursday in the quarterfinals then downing Alpine in their semifinal game.  Tornillo, which defeated the Loboes' District 1-3A rival Presidio in their opener and beat Fort Stockton on the Panthers' home court the previous week, defeated Alpine by a 58-41 score in the third place game.

The Loboes will have two games this week going into the Christmas holiday break, on Tuesday night in Kermit and Friday evening at home versus Seminole.  Monahans' girls will also play in Kermit on Tuesday, prior to the boys' game, with the varsity contest starting about 6 and 7:30 p.m.

The girls had been scheduled to face Crane on Friday, but that game was cancelled due to a scheduling mix-up, as the Golden Cranes played boys and girls game at Grady on Friday night.  Tuesday's game is the final one before Christmas for Monahans, while both teams will play next week at the Reagan Country Tournament.