Varsity Boys Basketball
Aiden McAfee comes off a Screen by Dennis Mott, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
VHS Varsity Boys Basketball Wrap-Up [February 5th and 6th]]
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The Buccaneers hosted Aurora Conference rival and perennial 3A front-runner Monroe Catholic over the weekend.
Friday, February 5th: Valdez 42, Monroe Catholic 70
On Friday night, the visiting Monroe Catholic Rams came out strong, jumping out to an early 10- 0 lead. Undeterred, the Bucs fought back to close the gap to 12-8 after the first quarter. The Bucs continued their crisp and aggressive play the duration of the first half, winning the 2nd quarter by a score of 15-14, and entered the intermission trailing by a mere 3 points.
A few minutes into the 3rd quarter the Bucs took their first lead of the game, 28-26. After yielding the lead for the first time, Monroe went on an all too familiar Ram run that the Bucs were unable to survive. Spurred in large part by 26 Buccaneer turnovers (leading to 31 points in transition) Monroe outscored the Bucs 44-14 the remainder of the contest en route to a 70-42 road victory.
Aiden McAtee led the Buccaneers with 16 points, while Hunter Mathews and Payton Gage chipped in 7 apiece. Dennis Mott led the Bucs with 9 rebounds.
Bryce Tucker drives against Monroe, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
Saturday, February 6th: Valdez 30, Monroe Catholic 80
Saturday’s midday affair saw a Buc team overwhelmed from the “tip” by a Monroe team clicking on all cylinders. The Rams took advantage of multiple Buccaneer miscues to sprint out to a 19- 5 first quarter lead, which they extended to a 41-16 halftime advantage. The second half proved much the same, as Monroe outscored the Bucs 39-14 and cruised to a 80-30 victory.
The Rams scored 29 points in transition, and shot a Brady-like 20/29 from the field, while the Bucs failed to register a single basket in transition and shot 9-of-21 from inside the arc for the game.
Seven of the eight Bucs suited up for the game scored. Dennis Mott led the team with 8 points and 7 rebounds, while Anthony Kelley netted 6 points in the losing effort.
Notes:
The Bucs will once again play host next weekend – this time to the West Valley Wolfpack, who were one of 7 teams who had originally committed to the 2021 Elk’s tournament.
Varsity Girls Basketball
Reese King vs. Monroe, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
Valdez Varsity Girls Vs. Monroe
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – The VHS Girls Basketball team face some stiff competition this past weekend when the Monroe Catholic Rams came to town.
On Friday night, the Buccaneers played a stingy defense for the first half of the game, with the half time score finding the Bucs down by 1 with a score of 20 – 19. During the second half, the Rams switched to a zone defense and the girls were finding themselves quickly double-teamed. A rash of turnovers by the Bucs quickly turned into transition points for the Rams and they pulled away. For the game, the Bucs out-rebounded and out-shot the Rams, but the Rams simply shot more based on turnovers. The Bucs lost by a score of 43 – 30. A balanced scoring attack by the Bucs included 9 by Reese King, and 8 by Carsyn Hinkle and Kylie Fletcher-Gilbert. Ambrosia Woodgate led all rebounders with 9. Rylie King successfully took a defensive charge.
Saturday’s action was largely a repeat of Friday. For the 1st quarter, the girls played terrific defense and took care of the ball. However, in the next two quarters the Rams would score 21 points off of turnovers compared to the Bucs 2 points off of turnovers. The final tally was in favor of the Rams at 59 – 39. Reese King had 12 points, Rylie King hit 3 of 4 three point attempts for 9 points. Katarina Taylor took a defensive charge.
The Bucs look forward to stiff competition again this week when the West Valley Wolfpack come to town.
Carsyn vs. Monroe, Photo courtesy of Joe Prax
JV Boys Basketball
Valdez JV Boys Vs. Monroe
Courtesy of VHS Coaches – This weekend Valdez faced the Monroe Rams. In a great learning
experience for the young squad, Monroe jumped out to a dominating lead
early and held on through to the end. On Saturday, Valdez put together a
much better game, however the experience of Monroe was too much as
they coasted to another win. Valdez showed toughness, & resilience and
kept fighting on Saturday doubling their total score from Friday’s game.
They continue to get better every day and look to improve coming into this
weekend with games against West Valley.