Lady Trojans learn to win at River Valley

The Lady Trojans went down to play four games last week at the River Valley Tournament in Mohave, Arizona, going 2-2 and then went to Durango on Tuesday and won 43-24.

At tournaments, teams play a lot of games in a short amount of time, and for coaches it shows them what the team needs to work on.

“We got a chance to win some games and we are getting better with the passing,” Trojans girls basketball (3-3 overall) coach Bob Hopkins said. “My team needed to learn to win.”

The team started off slow against a team from California called Lee Williams.

“That first game was close,” Hopkins said. “We were ahead at the half 29-24 and then they just outscored us by nine points.”

Pahrump lost that game 36-29.

The Trojans then played well against Mohave, Arizona and beat them 44-38.

“In the first couple of games we shot free throws poorly,” he said. “But then we played good defense.” On Saturday the team played three games. Against Mohave, Isabelle Meza scored 13 points, and Alyvia Briscoe had seven and Madeline Pereira-Villafuerte had seven points.

Hopkins said their third game of the tourney was against River Valley, where his team won 34-29.

“This team had a 6-foot-7-inch post who is going to go to UNLV,” Hopkins said. “We took her out of the game with good defense and made the other girls on the team shoot. She was limited to a field goal and four free throws.”

A key to that game was Bethany Calvert and her scoring.

“Bethany Calvert had her best game of the year,” Hopkins said. “She had some three-point shots and scored 11 points.”

Helen Vann also had seven points in that game. The team lost their last game of the tournament, which was their third game of the day and placed third in the tournament.

“I just think we fell asleep against Lee Williams for that last game,” he said.

Pahrump lost 30-22.

On Tuesday, the Trojans went to Durango and beat them. Hopkins said the team was coming along and may be still struggling on offense.

“The team is working hard,” Hopkins said. “Durango tried to put some pressure on us and we didn’t turn the ball over.”

Jill Smith, C’mone Wray-Ball, Helen Vann and Isabelle Meza each had four points. Sabin Chaidez had 16 points.

The Lady Trojans return home tonight at 5 p.m. against Tech (2-4) and the Trojans boys take on Tech at 6:30 p.m.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com