The Skyline Newspaper

The Lobo men’s tennis team struggled at their home matches last Saturday. Photo by Jason Hennington

Women’s Tennis Team Smokes College of S-West

Sul Ross State University split tennis matches with visiting College of the Southwest Saturday, Feb. 23, winning the women’s match 8-1 while losing the men’s competition 9-0.

The Lady Lobos improved to 2-0 with a default win over the Lady Mustangs. Christina Gallardo, El Paso, defeated CSW’s Stephanie Dixon 6-3, 6-0 in number one singles, while Judy Sarina, Fabens, lost 6-3, 6-0 to Whitney Kirisian at number two in the only singles matches played.

In doubles competition, Dixon/Kirisian won 9-7 over Gallardo/Sarina.

In men’s competition, CSW swept all six matches played. The Lobos defaulted number five and six singles and number three doubles.

Taylor Crossland won 6-1, 6-0 over John Langerock, Austin; John Taylor, Godley, lost 6-0, 6-0 to Jonathan Lira; Felix Zapien, Alpine, lost 6-0, 6-0 to Josh Baker; and James Aldridge, El Paso, fell 6-0, 6-0 to Pete Garcia.

In doubles, Crossland/Baker defeated Taylor/Langerock 8-1 and Adam Faul/Garcia defeated Aldridge/Zapien 8-0.

Sul Ross hosts Schreiner University Saturday, March 1, at 10:00 a.m., in American Southwest Conference action, then meets Texas Lutheran University Monday, March 3, at 2:00 p.m., on the Lobo Courts.

Women’s Basketball Wins Season Closer

Angelique Benton poured in 36 points and snared 10 rebounds as Sul Ross State University ended its women’s basketball season with a 77-62 win over Texas Lutheran University Saturday, Feb. 23, at Seguin.

Benton, El Paso Parkland, nailed seven three-pointers among 12 hoops as Sul Ross ended a nine-game loss string to finish 7-16, 6-15 in the American Southwest Conference West Division.

Monica Enriquez converted two free throws with five seconds left to lift Schreiner University to an 82-81 overtime win against the visiting Lady Lobos Thursday, Feb. 21.

Benton scored 17 points in the first half as Sul Ross cruised to a 40-25 lead. Janice Mitchell, Round Rock Stony Point, dished out a season-high eight assists and Isela Garza, El Paso Eastwood, grabbed ll rebounds to go with eight points. Mitchell added nine tallies and Nitra Woods, Andrews, seven points and eight rebounds.

Sul Ross extended its margin to 20, 53-33, six minutes into the second half and were never seriously threatened. The Lady Lobos shot 37 percent (25-67) from the field, but hit 10 of 22 three-pointers and 17 of 29 free throws. Sul Ross had 14 assists and just nine turnovers while grabbing 48 rebounds.

TLU, 0-25, 0-21, received 25 points from Amanda Usselman. The Lady Bulldogs shot 35 percent (24-68), including four of 19 from long distance, made 10 of 17 free throws and snared 49 rebounds.

On Thursday, Schreiner’s Enriquez winning shots came 11 seconds after Woods netted one of two chances to snap an 80-80 tie. Schreiner’s home-court win avenged a 62-54 setback Jan. 17 at the Gallego Center. 

Morgan Johnson, Christoval, and Woods combined for 38 points to help Sul Ross rally from an early 11-point deficit. The Lady Lobos trailed by 14, 26-12, early in the contest and faced a 37-29 halftime deficit. Woods, Johnson and fellow senior Mitchell combined for their team’s first 11 points of the second half, with Johnson’s hoop providing a 40-39 lead with 16:42 left.

Successive three-pointers by Garza and Johnson built a 48-41 advantage with 14:54 remaining before Enriquez and Courtney Davis fueled a Schreiner comeback. Davis’ free throws drew the Lady Mountaineers even, 51-51, with 11:13 showing, and Enriquez’ bucket provided a 55-51 lead at 10:33. Schreiner led by five, 70-65, with 2:50 left in regulation, but Johnson nailed a three-pointer with nine ticks left to force overtime with a 71-71 score.

Sul Ross played catch-up most of the extra session, with Shiloh Shugart’s, Merkel, three-pointer forging an 80-80 tie with 1:03 left.

Woods rebounded her own missed shot and was fouled with 18 seconds left, sinking one of two chances. Enriquez, who led all scorers with 28 points, drew a foul with five ticks showing and drained both chances for the tying and winning points.

Johnson paced the Lady Lobos with 22 points, Woods notched 16, Benton  12, Mitchell 10 and Garza nine points and nine rebounds. Sul Ross shot 44 percent, 26-59, including 12 of 26 from three-point range, and netted 17 of 25 free throws. Woods added seven rebounds and she and Garza each had four assists and two steals. Rebounding was even at 35-35.

Davis added 24 points and Lee Richardson 14 for Schreiner, 7-18, 6-15 in the ASC West Division. The winners hit 23 of 59 shots for 39 percent, just one of 17 three-pointers, but meshed 35 of 40 free throw tries.

Lobo Tracks...Woods finished the season with a team-leading 12.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game....Mitchell scored 9.8 points per outing, had 92 assists and 33 steals....Benton (9.2 ppg,) and Johnson (9.1) also approached double figures....Benton blocked 34 shots.

Double Loss Weekend for Men’s Basketball to Schreiner and TLU

Both Schreiner University and Texas Lutheran University avenged earlier losses with men’s basketball triumphs over visiting Sul Ross State University last weekend.

Coach Greg Wright’s team dropped a 68-63 verdict to Schreiner Thursday, Feb. 21, at Kerrville, then fell 55-52 to TLU at Seguin Saturday, Feb. 23. The Lobos ended the year 8-17, 7-14 in American Southwest Conference West Division play.

Schreiner avenged an 83-68 loss at the Gallego Center Jan. 17 and never trailed after the first seven minutes of play.

Roderick Gunter, Houston Westside, netted 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds to pace the Lobos. His three-pointer with 21 seconds left pulled Sul Ross within 64-63, but Mark Mahaffy and Stan Crockett drained four free throws in the last 18 seconds to seal the verdict.

Behind balanced scoring, the Mountaineers led by as many as 14 points, 31-17, before settling for a 33-26 halftime advantage. Schreiner increased its lead to 13, 41-28, with 17:30 left and held a 47-37 margin with 13:45 to play before Gunter rallied the Lobos.

Three-pointers from Moises Morales, Fort Hancock, and Jimmy Martinez, El Paso Andress, cut the gap to 49-44 and Sul Ross stayed within reach throughout the rest of the game. A turnover with six seconds left and the Lobos trailing 66-63 ended their chances to tie.

Fili Torres, Clint, added 14 points for Sul Ross and Jermaine Packer, Midland Lee, and Henry Flores, San Antonio Stevens, each scored seven. The Lobos netted 40 percent of their field goal attempts (21-53), six of 26 from long range, and added 15 of 21 free throws.

Schreiner received 13 points from Ronnie Barney, 12 from Riley Battle and nine each from three others. The Mountaineers shot 51 percent from the floor (24-47), eight of 22 beyond the arc, hit 12 of 17 foul shots and held a 31-21 rebound advantage.

Brad Howard nailed a three-pointer with two seconds left to spark Texas Lutheran’s Saturday win. The Bulldogs , 3-21, 3-17, led 29-22 at halftime and built a 43-30 margin before Gonzalez rallied the Lobos.

Gonzalez, playing his final game, nailed a three-pointer with 1:38 left to forge a 52-52 tie before Howard’s last-second heroics. Torres and Martinez also supplied clutch hoops as Sul Ross climbed back into contention.

The Lobos shot just 28 percent (8-29) in the first half and finished at 35 percent (19-55), seven of 27 from long range. Sul Ross hit seven of 11 free throws and collected 34 rebounds, nine from Torres.

Gonzalez led the way with 17 points, while Gunter added 11 and Martinez 10.

Michael Hill scored 13 and Josh Scott 10 for the Bulldogs, who shot 43 percent (23-54), made four of 19 threes and hit five of nine at the foul stripe. The winners grabbed36 rebounds, nine by Scott.
 
Lobo Tracks...Gonzalez and Packer played their final games in Lobo uniforms, averaging 12.8 and 7.2 points, respectively, for the season....Gonzalez had 74 assistas and 29 steals, shot 41 percent from three-point range (69-170) and 84 percent at the foul line....Torres scored12 points per game and averaged 7.6 rebounds, blocked 31 shots and made 44 percent of his three-point tries (28-63)....Gunter was an offensive spark over the second half of the season and finished with a 11.7 scoring average....Abe Ely, El Paso Hanks, averaged 10.7 points through 12 games before missing the second half with an injury.

Lobo Nine Manages One Win out of Three Against UT Dallas

Richard Fraire’s two-run, sixth-inning homer lifted Sul Ross State University to a 4-2 win over visiting Univeristy of Texas-Dallas Friday,  Feb. 22, in the first of a three-game set at Kokernot Field.

UT-Dallas, 7-2,  rebounded to win Friday’s second game 9-0 and rallied for a 14-5 victory Saturday to claim the series. Sul Ross, 3-8, travels to Clinton, Miss. this weekend to meet another American Southwest Conference East Division foe, Mississippi College. Friday’s, Feb. 29, single game begins at 2 p.m. and Saturday’s twin bill starts at 1 p.m.

Fraire, El Paso, snapped a 2-2 with a blast over the left-centerfield fence Friday. Chad Hudson’s RBI double snapped a 1-1 tie in the top of the frame, but the Lobos answered as Zach Denson, Fredericksburg, was hit by a pitch, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on Javier Arrieta’s, El Paso, one-out single to left. Fraire followed with a two-out round tripper, and Jaime Rojo, Alpine, worked out of a mild jam in the seventh to gain his first win of the year.

Rojo struck out four, walked three and allowed five hits. The Comets took a 1-0 lead in the second on a walk, infield out, wild pitch and throwing error. Sul Ross responded in the bottom of the third on doubles by Adrian Zepeda, Clint, and Chris Rodriguez, San Angelo.

Arrieta had two of the Lobos’ five hits off UT-Dallas’ Drew Waggoner, who struck out five and did not walk a batter.

Chris Biguenet socked a three-run homer in the first and a two-run double in the second as the Comets built a 6-0 lead. Mark Cox scattered six hits and a walk over eight innings, striking out seven batters, while his teammates collected 15 safeties off Cody Kemmerling, Hitchcock, and Ritchie Ortega, Clint.

UT-Dallas added single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

Denson singled twice in four trips for the Lobos, Arrieta doubled, and James Johnson, Killeen, Rodriguez and Harvey Cardiel, Tornillo, all singled.

Sul Ross bolted to a 4-0 lead after four on Saturday, but the Comets exploded for nine runs in the eighth and four in the ninth to win.

Will Montano, El Paso, singled home a run in the second, an error plated two in the third and a single, passed ball and two wild pitches added another marker in the fourth.

UT-Dallas countered with a run in the fifth on Chase Whitehead’s double and Biguenet’s single, but Michael Otero, Houston, limited the Comets to six hits and a single run over five and one-third frames. Lucas Garza, Hebbronville, preserved the 4-1 margin until the eighth, when the Comets exploded for eight hits and used a costly error, a hit batsman and three walks to move ahead 10-4.

Chris Alfano and Jared Smith both had two-run doubles in the frame, and Alfano added a two-run double in the four-run ninth. Garet Norton also singled home two runs as the winners finished with 19 hits.

The Lobos scored once in the final frame as Johnson doubled and Eric Castillo, Del Rio, singled him home.

Denson doubled and singled twice in five trips for the Lobos. Johnson and Ricardo Vera, Hebbronville, doubled, while Arrieta, Andrew Ramos, El Paso, Montano,, Castillo and Ryan Kassner, Corpus Christi, singled.

Softball Opens 2008 Season

University of Texas Permian Basin displayed its early-season experience, posting 9-0 and 10-2 softball wins over visiting Sul Ross State University Wednesday, Feb. 20.

UTPB improved to 5-9 by slamming 21 hits in the twin bill while pitchers Jennifer Oso and Emily Morrow, an Alpine High School graduate, allowed just seven hits and two unearned runs.

The Lady Lobos, playing their first games of the season under new coach Sandra Chambers, opened at home Wednesday, Feb. 27, at 1:00 p.m., against the College of the Southwest.

UTPB used a pair of seven-run innings to end both games by the eight-run rule. The Lady Falcons scored twice in the first and seven in the fourth in the opening game, sparked by Megan Lowe and Jessica Mireles. The pair combined for five hits and seven runs batted in, while Oso pitched a two-hit shutout, striking out three.

Dee Dee De Lao, Alpine, and Shannon Reyes, Bandera, singled for the Lady Lobos’ only hits. Valerie Olivarez, San Antonio, took the loss.

Morrow scattered five hits in the nightcap while Delynn Slough and Maci Schaefer each singled twice and drove in two runs each.

Sul Ross took an early 1-0 lead as Olivarez led off the game with a single, moved up on a sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored on a throwing error. UTPB countered with Slough’s two-run single in the bottom of the second and Mireles’ sacrifice fly in the third.

The Lady Lobos tallied again in the fourth as Kassie Fuller, Alpine, walked, Vanessa Pena, San Antonio, reached on a fielder’s choice and De Lao singled to load the bases. Fuller came home on a two-out infield error.

UTPB erupted for seven run in the last of the fifth, using Schaefer’s two-run single, RBI hits by Kim Smith and Mary Ward, two bases-loaded walks and a passed ball.

Olivarez and De Lao each singled twice for Sul Ross, while Fuller had the other hit. Kara Lick, Gatesville, was the losing pitcher.