Pirate, Indian basketball both advance

By BOB DILLARD

Jeff Davis County

Mountain-Dispatch

JEFF DAVIS COUNTY – Both Jeff Davis County basketball teams are headed into the state playoffs, Valentine starting early next week against Buena Vista and Fort Davis waiting until Friday to go against either Trent or Garden City.

The two teams settled the bracket seeding for the first round of the playoffs Friday night in Marfa when they played what amounted to a tiebreaker.

The two teams will be co-champions of the district boys’ crown, and now Fort Davis advances as first place and Valentine as the second seed.

The first round of the state Class A playoffs must be played either Monday or Tuesday with the second round scheduled Friday or Saturday.

That second round, should Valentine get by Buena Vista, will be against the winner of District 12, Water Valley, currently ranked third in the state.

Fort Davis, by virtue of last Friday’s win over Valentine, gets a bye on Monday and Tuesday, and will play Friday or Saturday against one of the two first round teams mentioned above, Trent and Garden City.

Friday’s matchup was forced after the two teams finished tied for the district lead after the regular season.

Fort Davis beat Valentine in Fort Davis and Valentine returned the favor in the second meeting in Valentine.

The third went to Fort Davis 50-44 with junior Carlos Granado the leading Indian scorer with 18 and had three steals.

Aaron Morton, Valentine’s senior, led all scorers with 25.

Granado got help from senior Harrison King with 15 points and eight rebounds.

Leading rebounder for the Indians was Chris Stephens, another junior, who grabbed 11 and scored 10 points. Another junior, Geronimo Salcido, had seven rebounds and Steve Enriquez led the Indians in assists with six.

Daniel Garnsey was in double figures for the Pirates with a dozen.