Winter Sports Roundup: December 22, 2021

By DAVE BELCHER

The Progress

MVHS Girls Basketball
The weather has turned cold this past week. Cold enough to make a difference in the Moapa Valley High School Girls Basketball team.
On Friday night the Lady Pirates traveled to Henderson where they played the Silverado SkyHawks. It was a game that figured to give the Pirates their stiffest competition yet this season.

The Pirates only scored 37 points in the game. But that ended up being enough to keep the Moapa team undefeated, taking a 37-27 victory from the Sky Hawks.

Moapa Valley shot 12-53 from the field, 29 of the shots were from behind the 3 point line where they made just 5. Emma Humes had all five, her only field goals providing 15 of the 37 points.
Silverado had the same problem, Ashley Saxton who was the leading scorer for both teams made three 3 pointers: the only ones for the Skyhawks.

The game started with the Pirates taking a 6-0 lead and carried that lead until there was 30 seconds remaining in the quarter. It was Saxtons first 3 pointer.

The first foul of the game came with 3 seconds remaining. It was against the Pirates. Moapa Valley led 6-3 at the end of the first quarter.
Silverado came back to tie the game.

Savana Burt showed tons of hustle and pressure as she stole passes, went to the floor diving for balls and driving the lane for lay ups or passing to open shooters.

But no one could score. Silverado tied the game at 9-9 where the teams were stalled until the half.
It was the third quarter when the Pirates finally put some shots through the hoop, outscoring the Skyhawks 13-4 for a nine point lead to start the fourth quarter.

The Pirates scored 28 points in the second half. Emma Humes caught fire as she made her three’s putting separation between the Pirates and the Skyhawks. Humes scored three in a row scoring 9 points in the third and giving the Pirates a 22-13 lead to start the fourth.

Alysa Jolley started the fourth with an inbound basket. Saxton then hit a “3” followed by back to back “3’s” by Humes. Saxton then made her third “3” for a 30-24 Moapa Valley lead.
Burt stepped in front of a Silverado pass on the inbound pass. Moving to the basket, she was flattened to the floor by Silverado. She went to the free throw line where she made 1 of 2.

The second half went much better for the Pirates who hope to carry that momentum into their next game on Dec. 27 when they play Shadow Ridge. Then on Dec. 28 the Pirates play Sierra Vista. Both of those games will be in Las Vegas.

MVHS Boys Basketball
The Moapa Valley High School Boys Basketball team traveled to Amplus Academy in Las Vegas on Friday, Dec. 17 where they played American Leadership Academy of Queen Creek Arizona in the Tarkanian Classic. American Leadership beat the Pirates 65-56 in the first round game.

In this tournament the game had two halves of 16 minutes each. American Leadership is a team that has such good height and that likes to push the ball up the floor. They shoot a lot of layups and can make the “3”.

American Leadership led throughout the first half and built a 31-12 lead midway through the first. They pressed the Pirates who struggled at times handling it.

The American Leadership team scored driving the lane for layups and put backs. This lead was huge because the Pirates outscored them 35-27 in the second half catching the hot hand the last half of the second half.

The Pirates started the second half in a man to man on defense. But a couple of turnovers pushed the American Leadership lead to 21 after a steal, bounce pass and dunk, 26-47.

It was then the Pirates started to make a comeback. They went on a 19-12 run and cut the lead to 5 points with a minute to play in the game at 56-61.
But Moapa Valley wouldn’t score again as American Leadership converted free throws for the final score of 65-56.

The Pirates returned to Vegas at Faith Lutheran where they played Del Sol and beat the Dragons 62-50.