MVHS Girls Add More League Wins

By GANNON HANEVOLD

Moapa Valley Progress

With their regular season now comfortably underway, the Moapa Valley High School Girls Basketball team played against two struggling league opponents last week. An away matchup against the Sky Pointe Eagles and a home game against the Chaparral Cowboys made for a fairly easy week at a vital point in the season.

The first game of the week came against the Eagles, who have struggled since their inauguration into the 3A last season.

After one quarter, the Pirates led 30-0, a score more fitting for a lopsided football game than just a quarter of basketball. The onslaught continued and Moapa Valley coasted their way to a 48-5 victory. They never allowed more than two points in a quarter.

Leading the Pirates in scoring was Emma Humes with 10 points, and the rest of the team shared scoring duties as most players found their notch in the box score.

On Friday, the team took on the Chaparral Cowboys, who have also had a rocky opening to the regular season. Once again, the Pirates dominated. However, this time around they didn’t seem to put on the cruise control. In the first half alone, the Pirates scored one more point than they did in the entire game against Sky Pointe. A 49-22 lead at halftime put to rest any thoughts of an upset in the minds of the Cowboys.

The Pirates went on to finish with their first seventy point performance of the season. The final score ended at 70-41, with Lainey Cornwall and Kaitlyn Anderson leading the way with 20 and 15 points, respectively. Andalin Hillstead and Emma Humes each added nine, while Kyla Bradshaw scored eight. With all the scoring, head coach Brandon

Jones claimed one stat in particular as his favorite.
“We scored seventy points and only made two threes,” Jones said. “We were running our offense and running in transition.”
“We were able to do pretty much anything we wanted to,” Jones said. “We could run our press, score in the half court, and just executed really well.”

With their third consecutive season as the frontrunner in the 3A Southern region, Jones said he often considers what can set this year’s squad apart from the last two.

“One of the things I want to make sure of is that we’re multi-faceted,” Jones said. “If we need to press, slow it down, shoot threes, or attack the rim, we can do that. When you get into those pressure-packed games, good teams try to take things away, so we need something else we can go to.”

Jones feels he’s achieved that goal at this point in the season. “I’ve really tried this season to try lots of different things and we’ve struggled at times because of that,” he said. “But now we have a lot of weapons we can go to.”

As for the mental approach he wants the team to take, Jones described the somewhat nostalgic point of view he’s delivered.
“I’ve been telling the team, especially the seniors, to just enjoy every game because it’s over quick,” he said. adding that this mindset often brings a hint of sentimentality to the team’s upperclassmen.

Still undefeated, the Pirates take on the Boulder City Eagles this week, a team they barely defeated earlier this season. With many playoff implications on the line, their position going forward will likely be directed following the crucial matchup.