Photos Courtesy of Charla Shults
The Lady Harvesters (4-19, 0-3) traveled to Brownwood for a tournament during the final week of Christmas Break. This would wrap up their tournament and non-conference season with district ramping back up at Hereford on Tuesday, January 6th.
Pampa competed against Gruver, Bushland, Canadian, and Stratford. All of those teams are powerhouses in their respective classifications.
The first game of the tournament for the Lady Harvesters was against Gruver.
“Gruver came out and jumped on us early. We were sluggish and Gruver definitely took advantage of that. We played a really good 3rd quarter. We lost 62-27,” Head Coach Clint Watson said.
The next game was against Bushland.
“Bushland is another game where the opponent came out and just wore us out throughout the game. We had girls battling illness and playing four games in three days coming out of the holiday break was pretty tough. We lost 58-21,” Watson said.
The next game was against Canadian.
“We had a really good start to the Canadian game. We jumped out to a 9-2 lead and our defense was playing tough. We forced many first half turnovers. Canadian was slowly able to get back into the game due to our foul trouble and missed free throws. We lost 55-40,” Watson said.
The Lady Harvesters ended the tournament against Stratford.
“Stratford was a back-and-forth game throughout. We held a seven-point advantage but Stratford was able to chip away and take the game, thanks in part to many missed free throws. We lost 54-50,” Watson said.
Head Coach Clint Watson does not view the tournament as a failure despite the results. He focused on the positives.
“Even though we went 0-4 in the tournament, I still saw plenty of positives throughout. Even in the games where we fall behind early, our youngsters still show the Harvester fight. All four teams will be playoff teams, with the possibility of winning a few gold balls. Outside of the sluggish first half against Gruver, the girls continue to battle and give it all they have. Two areas I’d like to see improvement in is free throw shooting and turnovers. We still get a little antsy at times and try to be too aggressive. That will be an area to work on going forward. The other is free throw shooting. We lost to Stratford and Canadian by 19 points total and we missed 37 free throws,” Watson said.
Hereford is the next opponent on the district schedule. Pampa played them on Tuesday night. Here is what Watson had to say about going there:
“Heading into Hereford on Tuesday, which is always a very hostile environment, it will be key to control the ball and the tempo. They have a couple of girls that like to push the ball and shoot the 3 point shot. We don’t need to fall into the trap of trying to match their tempo. We need to play our game and pick our times when to push the ball faster,” Watson said.
Nayelie Garcia
Every article, we are going to showcase one player on the team. This week, that player is Sophomore Guard Nayelie Garcia.
“She earned her varsity spot during the Brownfield tournament. She does everything as hard as possible, and with a smile on her face. She is a fearless attacker and plays defense with great effort,” Watson said.
