Moapa Valley Progress Newspaper

Home

News

Sports

Opinion

Upcoming Events

Forecast Radar Cameras

	MVHS Girls Take Holiday Classic Championship

	by Jonathan Oglesby Moapa Valley Progress Last week, the Moapa Valley High School Lady Pirate basketball team took the championship in the annual MVHS Holiday Classic basketball tourney held at MVHS on December 27-29. The Lady Pirates faced off against Northern 3A member Incline in the first round of the tourney. MVHS jumped to an early 4-0 lead when Jessica Waite hit a jumper with 6:00 left in the quarter. The Lady Pirates were extremely physical in the early going of the game and continued to dominate the paint and pound the glass. When Blythe Thompson made a layup, the Lady Pirates took the lead at 14-8 which is where the first quarter action would end. Blythe Thompson made an early deuce to put the Lady Pirates up 16-8 and when Kasi Delgadillo made a layup with 6:00 remaining in the half, Moapa Valley maintained a healthy 18-11 lead. Delgadillo would be one of the driving forces in the Lady Pirate offense as her physical style of play allowed her to make shots, draw fouls, and get to the free throw line. When Delgadillo sunk her foul shots with 2:52 left in the quarter, Moapa Valley had increased their lead with a score of 24-13. Score at the end of the first half: Moapa Valley 26, Incline 13. Scoring was slow in the third quarter as it took both teams almost three minutes to get a shot to fall into the hoop. Blythe Thompson increased the MVHS lead by sinking a three. Several other Lady Pirates joined in the third quarter effort including Meredith Gutowski who made a layup to put Moapa up 31-13 near the end of the quarter. Moapa Valley would end up holding a 33-17 advantage at the end of the third quarter. Kaytie Cook opened up the Lady Pirate scoring in the fourth as she made an early basket to keep Moapa on top 35-17. The Lady Pirates then went on an offensive drought. But defense kept the Incline from putting up points. In fact, Incline would only score seven points in the entire fourth quarter. When Brianne Olige hit her shot, the Lady Pirates led 37-19 and by the time Kayla Riggins made a layup with 1:07 remaining, the game was all but over. Final Score: Moapa Valley 45, Incline 25. The next night, the Lady Pirates faced a tough West Wendover team. The Lady Pirate offense was almost non-existent in the first quarter. Things didn't look good for them when the Lady Wolverines took a 0-9 lead with 2:10 left in the quarter. It wasn't that the West Wendover defense was tough, it was that the shots just wouldn't fall in. By the end of the first quarter Moapa Valley was in a 2-9 deficit. The Lady Pirate offense fared slightly better in the second quarter as players began to find their form. But West Wendover's form was as good as ever and took a 4-19 lead with 5:16 left in the quarter. The Lady Pirates would score though and when Kasi Delgadillo hit a three pointer from the corner, Moapa kept up hope. West Wendover would again stretch the lead to 9-25 but the Lady Pirates scored the last six points of the half. Score at the end of the first half: Moapa Valley 13, West Wendover 25. The Lady Pirates came out energized in the third quarter. The offense found it's groove and players like Jessica Waite, Kayla Riggins, Kasi Delgadillo, Cori Cook and Blythe Thompson put points up on the board. When Thompson hit a three with 2:15 left in the quarter, Moapa Valley was back within six points. The quarter would end with West Wendover leading with a score of 25-31 at the end of the third quarter. Moapa knew they had to come out and play to win and the Lady Pirates did just that in the fourth quarter. When Jessica Waite made a layup with 7:11 left in the game, the score was 29-31 and the Lady Pirates were within strike distance. It was here that Moapa Valley began to feel the effects of earlier, questionable fouls as West Wendover found themselves in the double bonus. Even with that, when Kyle Peterson hit a three with 2:34 left in the game, the Lady Pirates were only down by five. Moapa would pull to within one again when Jessica Waite made another layup but the Lady Pirates couldn't defeat the referees and West Wendover. Final Score: Moapa Valley 41, West Wendover 46. The Lady Pirates hosted Lincoln County in the championship game. Moapa scored early with an easy two points from Blythe Thompson and took a 4-2 lead off of Kasi Delgadillo's layup. The Lady Pirates held the Lady Lynx to only ten points in the quarter but Lincoln Country still tied the score at 10 until Jessica Waite hit a three pointer to give the Pirates a 13-10 lead. The Lady Pirates would lead 17-10 at the end of the first quarter. Moapa Valley came out strong in the second quarter allowing Brianne Olige to get an early basket. The Lady Pirates would stretch their lead to 25-10 when Jessica Waite made her easy lay-up. It was the Moapa defensive effort that would ultimately lead them to strength as they only allowed Lincoln Country to score eight points in the quarter. Scoring for the half would end when Kasi Delgadillo hit a three from the corner to give Moapa a 30-18 lead at halftime. Kasi Delgadillo was again the offensive spark in the third as she made the first basket of the half to put ahead 32-18. It was Delgadillo and Blythe Thompson that keyed the Lady Pirates onward and as Thompson hit a three at the end of the quarter, Moapa took a commanding 54-27 lead into the final quarter. Thompson again led the Lady Pirates down the stretch. She hit an early three pointer to give Moapa a 57-31 lead with 5:56 left. From then on, it was just a maintenance of the lead and the ability to take advantage of open court which gave Moapa Valley their goal. Final Score: Moapa Valley 69, Lincoln County 54. After the tournament, it was determined that Moapa Valley had repeated as the champions of the MVHS Holiday Classic. Kasi Delgadillo was named to the All-Tournament Team after her outstanding performance. Moapa Valley's own Blythe Thompson won the MVP award.