Basketball season gets underway

The Comanche basketball teams gave home fans their money’s worth with two close wins over visiting county rival Empire last Friday night in the season opener for Comanche.

There were three ties and seven lead changes in the girls’ game before the Lady Indians took the lead for good late in the third quarter.

On the boys’ side, there were four ties and nine lead changes before Comanche took the lead for the final time with 21.7 seconds left in the game.

Lady Indians 49,

Lady Bulldogs 41

Former Comanche girls’ coach Sean Hushbeck found himself in a familiar position on the sideline with head coach Megan Robbins out on maternity leave. The athletic director is coaching the team until Robbins’ return.

The Lady Indians did not seem bothered as they pulled away down the stretch to get the win.

After Empire scored the first basket of the game, Comanche outscored the visitors 9-3 the rest of the quarter to take a 9-5 lead into the second.

The teams battled back-and-forth throughout the second with three ties and three lead changes. The Lady Indians’ though would hold Empire

scoreless the last 2:30 of the game as they went on a 7-0 run to close out the quarter and take a 23-17 halftime lead.

Empire fought its way back into the game. After trailing 28-21 with 5:33 left in the third, the Lady Bulldogs went on a 10-2 run with four different players scoring to give the lead back to Empire with 2:40 left in the quarter. Less than a minute later, however, Gracee Miller sank a short jumper to give her team a 32-31 edge and the Lady Indians would never trail again.

Comanche took a five-point lead into the fourth quarter where they did not allow Empire to get any closer than four points and held off the Lady Bulldogs to get the win.

Scoring

Comanche: Gracee Miller, 13; Caitlyn Blair, 10; Kynli Morris, 10; Jasmine Francis, 8; Kinley Rendon, 7; Teagan Pineda, 1

Empire: Jade Millan, 21; Jasmine Millan, 10; Jaycee Porter, 8; Callie Webb, 2

Indians 47, Bulldogs 43

Comanche’s young guns came through in the first game of the season.

The Indians, with four freshmen starters, got off to a slow start, scoring just nine points in the first half, but they exploded for 38 points in the second half and battled toe-to-toe with the Bulldogs in the fourth before finally coming out on top.

“I figured we would come out and launch it over the goal and they were a little nervous before the game,” said Caleb Patterson, head coach. “We just stuck with the process and stuck with what we were trying to do. I got faith in those young guys to make it happen.”

Comanche mustered just three points in the first quarter and then could add only six more in the second, Empire struggled some offensively, too, though, which allowed Comanche to trail by only three points at the half.

The Indians would get hot behind the three point line in the third quarter, knocking down six three-pointers from behind the arc with Corbin Bowen and Myles Ellis accounting for all six. The hot streak allowed the Indians to take a 33-30 lead into the final quarter.

The Bulldogs would battle back, however. Empire caught Comanche at the 3:18 mark, which started a run of three ties and four lead changes the rest of the way.

Empire went up 43-41 with 1:52 to go, but Comanche closed out the game on a 6-0 run with all points coming from the free-throw line to get the win.

Scoring

Comanche: Corbin Bowen, 18; Myles Ellis, 16; Briar Blair, 9; Mason Kulbeth, 4

Empire: D. Alverez, 8; Landon Burton, 7; M. Weber, 6; C. Francis, 5; J. Smith, 5; J. Carra, 5; E. Diaz, 4

Saturday

Lady Indians 30,

Leopardettes 28

Seven different Comanche players scored and no player reached double digits as the Lady Indians won on a last-second shot.

With seconds remaining, Caity Blair inbounded the ball to Gracee Miller near the top of three-point line and the sophomore took two steps and knocked down a jumper just inside the line with 1.9 seconds left to give the Lady Indians the win.

Comanche had trailed at the end of every quarter (13-9, 21-16 and 27-23) before winning at the end. The Lady Indians did their job defensively, limiting the Leopardettes to one point in the final quarter to allow the comeback.

The free-throw line played a big role in the win for Comanche. The Lady Indians were 16-of-25, while Lindsay was 3-of-8.

Scoring

Comanche: Gracee Miller, 9; Kynli Morris, 5; Teagan Pineda, 5; Kinley Rendon, 4; Jasmine Francis, 4; Caity Blair, 1

Lindsay: Stephen, 8; Stevens, 6; Phillips, 4; Perry, 3; Taylor, 3

Leopards 51, Indians 49

Lindsay returned the favor in the boys game as the Leopards won on a basket in the final seconds.

The Leopards led 11-10 at the end of the first quarter and 25-20 at the half. They then took a 39-34 lead into the final quarter.

Due to a scoring book error, the final individual scoring results were not available as of press time.