Basketball: Desert Christian comes back to sweep San Miguel
by Andy Morales on Dec. 10, 2012, under Sports
Nicole Ayers. Andy Morales Photo.
The initial AIA/MaxPreps seedings for basketball will not be announced until December 18 so it’s hard to really judge where teams stand beyond their won-loss record. Under that measurement, the Desert Christian girls are off to a great start under first-year coach Richard Peddy.
Peddy has his team sitting at an impressive 10-1 record with their only loss coming to rival St. Gregory in late November but a close game against San Miguel on Monday night proved to be another test for the Eagles.
Led by junior Larissa Reed’s 10 points, San Miguel led Desert Christian 23-18 at the half with Desert Christian standout senior Sara Boice hampered with early foul trouble and only two points.
Senior Nicole Ayers and freshman Brynn Matthias kept Desert Christian close with six points each but San Miguel sophomore Racheal Bailey added seven points to help Reed keep up the attack on Desert Christian.
Boice was sent to the bench after she picked up her fourth foul with 3:46 left in the third quarter and San Miguel was able to hold on to a 29-26 lead entering the final period.
Boice came back in the game to start the fourth and she made a quick basket to cut the lead to 29-28 but Stevie Templeton hit a 3-pointer to extend San Miguel’s lead to 32-28 with 6:30 left in the game.
A final bucket by Reed made the lead 34-28 with 6:03 left but Desert Christian went on a 11-0 run to take a 39-34 lead with 1:20 left. Junior Hannah Holz scored the go-ahead basket at the 4:10 mark during the run.
Templeton scored with 1:09 left to make it 39-36 but Desert Christian was able to dribble out the game with Ayers scoring the final basket with 18.3 seconds left for the 41-36 win.
Reed led all scorers with 14 points, Bailey had 9 and Templeton had 8 for San Miguel.
Ayers led Desert Christian with 10, Boice came back to score 9, Matthias had 8 and freshman Hannah Bjorgum added 6.
Desert Christian travels to Immaculate Heart (7-0) on Tuesday night and San Miguel is on break until January.
The Desert Christian boys are also sitting at a 10-1 record with Iram Alday coaching without standout Myles Mayfield who graduated last year.
The Eagles appear to be moving forward without Mayfield with their only loss coming to Ray several weeks ago but San Miguel jumped all over them in the early moments by jumping gout to a 7-0 lead in the first five minutes.
Desert Christian finished the quarter down 9-4 but sophomore Zachary Malis lead his team with seven points to help tie the game up several times in the second quarter. Tre Miller scored 10 points to lead all scorers and he put San Miguel back up 18-17 with 1:28 left before sophomore Zach Ayers scored four points to put Desert Christian up 21-18 at the half and the Eagles never looked back.
San Miguel was held to four points in the third and remained off the scoreboard from the 3:40 point until the 5:35 point in the fourth quarter. Desert Christian was able to slowly extend their lead to 34-22 in that time.
Malis and Miller led all scorers with 14 points each but Malis had more help with Ayers scoring 6, Blake Trout scoring 5 and Ben Brandon, Michael Shew and Allen Bradley scoring 4 each.
Pablo Monreal scored 6 for San Miguel and Javier Madrid and Omar Lorta added 4 each.
The Desert Christian boys will also play at Immaculate Heart on Tuesday night.
