Bullard shoots past Stallions in CMAC
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune Madera South’s Arelis Chavez drives to the lane during Tuesday’s loss to the Bullard Knights.
For the second straight game, the Bullard-Fresno Knights girls basketball team used its outside shooting for a County/Metro Athletic Conference win against a Madera team, this time it was against the Madera South Stallions.
Last week, the Knights defeated Madera 57-44 and hit 11 3-pointers. On Tuesday, the Knights hit five 3-pointers in the first and fourth quarters for a 69-41 victory at Madera South.
“They are a good shooting team,” head coach Johnny Sharp said. “Our team didn’t understand our defensive principles. When we say don’t let them shoot, that’s what we actually mean. I think it meant something else to them tonight.”
In the first and fourth quarters, Bullard outscored Madera South 46-26. In the second and third quarters, Bullard only outscored the Stallions 23-19.
“We just did not have the motivation we should have had tonight after a big victory Friday,” Sharp said. “We shot the ball very well in Sanger. We played about the same, but couldn’t make shots tonight.”
The Stallions, off a big win against Sanger, didn’t come out with the shooting touch they had last week. Aleecia Rosel scored 34 points against the Apaches, but was held to just six points, all in the first quarter. Kierra Smith, who hit seven 3-pointers had just two and scored six points against Bullard.
The Stallions shot just 26 percent (17-of-65) from the field and just 33 percent (6-of-18) from the free throw line.
“It’s basic fundamentals and stuff we teach,” Sharp said. “We didn’t get a lot of fundamental things done tonight.”
The Stallions forced 11 turnovers, but none in the fourth quarter. It didn’t really matter because Madera South converted just one of those turnovers into points. Meanwhile, Bullard scored 14 points off 15 Madera South turnovers.
Arelis Chavez led the Stallions with 12 points to go with 13 rebounds and nine on the offensive glass.
The Knights started off the game with 12 straight points, including two 3-pointers. The Stallions came right back with a 10-0 run in less than a two minute span.
Emily Montoya scored the first points with 4:47 left in the first quarter on a layup. She then took a rebound coast-to-coast for another layup. Briseida Vasquez put back a miss and Rosel made back-to-back driving runners to cut the lead to two.
After Bullard hit another 3-pointer, Rosel made another driving runner.
However, the Knights closed out the first quarter with two more 3-pointers and an offensive putback for a 23-12 before Lexi Eller made a layup at the end of the quarter.
Almost three minutes went by in the second quarter before either team scored. After Bullard put back a miss, Smith hit a 3-pointer. Chavez put back a miss to answer a Bullard bucket.
The Knights scored four more points for a 31-19 lead with 3:32 left in the first half.
Montoya hit a short jumper, but the Knights closed the first half with a bucket and two free throws for a 35-21 lead.
Smith hit a 3-pointer to open the second half and Chavez answered a Bullard layup with one of her own. Bullard hit a jumper to extend its lead to 39-26.
Madera South had three missed shots and four missed free throws on its next possession with Chavez accounting for the free throws. She put back her own miss to cut the Bullard lead to nine.
The Knights then scored seven straight points to get the lead back to 16 before Eller hit a 3-pointer near the end of the third quarter for a 46-33 lead.
Rosel found Chavez down low for a layup to cut the lead to 11. After a Bullard layup, Chavez made a free throw. From there, Bullard went on a 14-3 run, highlighted by four straight 3-pointers for a 65-39 lead.
Madera South got a free throw from Jackie Cortez and Taylor Rogers as the Knights scored four more points for a 69-41 victory.
