By Dave Belcher

Moapa Valley Progress

Is it over yet? I mean the after-Christmas nightmare which haunted the lady Pirates last week. With as few as seven girls making the trip due to vacations, and with the team’s head coach out sick; the Moapa Valley High School Girls Basketball team had to face the #1 ranked girls’ team in the state for all leagues at the first game of the Las Vegas Holiday Classic.

Three days the tournament lasted; and for three days the Pirates played their hearts out.

The first game Moapa played the number one ranked Bulldogs of Centennial High School of Las Vegas. Centennial used the Lady Pirates merely as a warm-up for the rest of the week.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a 22-2 lead after the first quarter then were content to rotate their bench for the rest of the game. Centennial scored 19 points in the second to Moapa’s 9. The Pirates would only muster up nine more points for the game as Centennial would walk away with a 69-20 thrashing of the Lady Pirates.

Ashley Noto led the Pirates with 13 points.

Moapa shot 5-8 from the free throw line and were out rebounded 28 to 6 by the Bulldogs.

This tournament was a best-of tournament as schools from the surrounding states of California, Arizona and the best of Northern Nevada met together to form four divisions of five teams each in the three day tourney. The first two days each team had two games apiece. The final day the teams were matched up according to their record.

In the Pirates division was Centennial, Mira Costa (CA), Carson City and University (CA). The Pirates second game of the day was against Mira Costa. Led by Noto’s 11 points the Pirates were, nevertheless beaten soundly again 63-23. Emily Mills scored 8. The Pirates were out rebounded 29-5 and shot 11-27 from the free throw line.

Mira Costa jumped out to a 15-2 lead after the first quarter then a 26-7 led at the half before scoring 24 in the third quarter. Moapa had 13.

Thursday’s games first brought a Pirate and University matchup where University scored 25 in the second quarter to bust open the ball game after a 9-5 lead ending the first quarter.

University then held the Pirates to one point in the third and 4 in the fourth to complete the 57-15 rout.

Emily Mills led the Pirates with 9 points. Moapa was 5-12 from the free throw line and was out rebounded 20-5 for the game.

University was 10-17 from the line.

The afternoon game against Carson was equally bleak. The Pirates were unable to score a single two point goal for the game. They had 3 three pointers and 5 made free throws for their points in the game. Hanna Leavitt led the team with seven points.

Carson built a 26-8 lead after the first and a 39-10 lead at the half to run away with the win 57-14. The Pirates didn’t score the entire third quarter, they scored only 6 points in the last three quarters.

On Saturday the girls were paired up with the Douglas Tigers and were beaten 36-27. Moapa was down 1 at the half but scored just 3 points in the 3rd as Douglas pulled away. Moapa had only seven players dress for this game. Noto led the Pirates with nine. Moapa was 2-11 from the line.

This week the ladies head to Clark High School then to Boulder City on Friday for the first league game of the season.