By GANNON HANEVOLD
Moapa Valley Progress
Coming off of a preseason tournament victory in Las Vegas last week, the Moapa Valley High School Girls Basketball team now looks to enter the league season with momentum. Last week, the Pirates got their first look at a league opponent and were able to send a confident message to the Division 3A: the Pirates are back once again!
But first, Moapa Valley hosted Pahrump Valley for the first home game of the season. Pahrump took on Moapa in the playoffs last year, when the Pirates sent the Trojans home with a loss. This time around, neither side could get it going early on in the offensive side. A low scoring first half unfolded. At the end of the first quarter, the two sides were closely battling at a 7-6 score. Moapa would pull away a little bit with a 15-8 lead at the half.
In the second half, the Pirates kept things going as is, with a 24-16 lead as the final quarter began.
As evident from the score, defense was at the forefront for the Pirates, who stood strong possession after possession. This strong defense, despite the shots not falling on the offensive side, led MVHS to a 38-27 victory when the final buzzer sounded.
While the team struggled from the field, Kaitlyn Anderson had a hot hand for the Pirates, scoring 20 in the game.
“It was our fourth game in five days,” explained head coach Stuart Humes. “Sometimes it’s hard to get things going. We didn’t shoot well from the field but we did a lot of good things, especially on the defensive side of the ball.”
“Sometimes that shot isn’t falling and the girls just found a way to get a victory,” Humes continued. “Sometimes you have those nights so it’s nice to know you can rely on your defense to get stops when you need them.”
The second game of the week came on the road as the Pirates traveled to SECTA for their first meeting with the Roadrunners. This game followed a far different storyline than the win against the Trojans. While it took three quarters to score 24 points on Monday, the Pirates did so in just one period against SECTA.
Leading 24-4 after a quarter of play, the Pirates were in the driver’s seat, and it stayed that way. They kept the pedal on the floor and drove their way to a 71-22 victory.
“It was probably one of the best team performances we’ve had in a long time,” Humes said. “The girls were focused and relaxed and completely dominated every phase of the game. It was a complete effort by the entire team and a lot of fun to watch.”
When asked if the game would be seen as a statement to their league, the Pirates’ coach said, “I can’t imagine the other teams seeing that score and not being a little concerned about the Pirates this year. It was probably one of the finer performances I’ve seen from an entire team from beginning to finish.”
Two weeks into the year, the Pirates remain unbeaten thus far, and certainly are carrying confidence at the right time, as the regular season has officially begun. “We always felt like we had a good thing going this year, but when you lose certain seniors sometimes you worry,” Humes said. “The girls have quickly put those worries to rest. They’re on a roll and playing really good basketball. They have a lot of confidence and faith in one another. We feel pretty confident that we’re the team to beat, and now it’s just up to the girls to go out and prove it.”
Earlier in the season, Humes expressed concern in ensuring that the Pirates are deep off the bench, but after seeing the team perform the way they did against SECTA proved quite a bit. Humes now says, “When you see your inexperienced girls play with the confidence they played with and start to trust each other, it’s actually kind of scary knowing how good these girls can be. I don’t even think they know. From a coach’s perspective, it’s pretty fun to watch.”
With a tournament in Mesquite this weekend, the Pirates hope to keep rolling their way to another successful regular season.
