San Luis shuts down Antelope

The Antelope girls basketball team got a basket by Amirah Luna in the closing moments of the first quarter.

The next time the Rams scored came a minute into the fourth quarter.

San Luis took advantage of the Rams' dry spell on offense and picked up a 40-8 win Friday night in Wellton. It was the first victory of the year for the Sidewinders, who got a double-double from senior center Teresa Velasco's 11 points and 15 rebounds.

“It's good for us. I think it's going to help us to come over and get our first win,” San Luis coach Carlos Ambriz said. “We had to come out and just play. Hopefully, it'll get us going.”

Senior wing Kathya Cazarez had 10 points, and senior point guard Irania Fimbres added seven for the Sidewinders.

The Rams (0-7) struggled mightily on offense in the second and third quarters with a combination of missing shots and turning the ball over.

“We're so young that they're still learning to play so when we got the ball inside, they weren't going up with it,” Antelope coach James Jones said. “As time goes on and the more experience we get, the more aggressive they'll get and look to score. Right now they're not aggressive.”

Luna was the one to break the dry spell on a layup with 7:04 left in the fourth quarter. Luna, a 4-foot-10 freshman point guard, had a team-high four points for the Rams.

“Today we played a lot of freshmen at the varsity level and they're starting to get it — and to do that, you need to get them more playing time.”

San Luis (1-8) had five of its losses determined by less than 10 points, and Ambriz hopes this win will bounce the Sidewinders back.

“We're there,” Ambriz said. “But it's just confidence.”

One cause for optimism for the Sidewinders came on the defensive end — not only shutting the Rams out for two quarters, but forcing 30 turnovers on the night.

“We're just playing that man-to-man defense and we did a good job on it tonight,” Ambriz said.