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Danbury downed in 3rd quarter
Published November 30, 2007
NEEDVILLE — The third quarter has been Danbury’s Achilles heel in four games this season. Thursday afternoon in the opener of the Needville Tournament, the third period came back to haunt the Panthers.
The El Campo Ricebirds outscored Danbury 24-4 at the start of the second half and blew open a tight game en route to a 66-45 win.
“We have been very sluggish in the third quarter in all of our ball games,” Danbury coach Earnest Wilson said. “It’s been tough for us and I don’t know why. You look every where else and if we are even with them and take that quarter away, this is a whole different ball game.”
El Campo jumped out to a 15-0 run to begin the third quarter as Ricebird’s 6-foot-7 Travis Pflugharpt connected on a couple of field goals and Maverick Smith hit a trey and another bucket to lead outburst.
By the time Steven Wilson scored off a pass from Jared Penney following a steal, the Panthers (1-4) trailed 48-26 with 2:26 remaining in the third quarter. Wilson went on to score the only other bucket for Danbury in the period as turnovers off poor passes killed the Panther attack.
“Those turnovers is the lack of familiarity between our kids and understanding where the ball needs not to be passed,” Wilson said. “We threw some passes that I don’t allow them to throw in practice and they were trying to make things happen. Some of those cross-court lob passes against a quick team is going to kill you all the time. I have some kids that still don’t understand what they are supposed to do.”
Danbury committed eight turnovers in that third stanza. Smith scored nine points to lead the Ricebird attack.
Danbury outscored El Campo 15-9 in the fourth quarter but had fallen too far back to catch up to the Ricebirds.
“It comes down to everybody understanding what everyone’s role is on the floor at a particular time,” Wilson said. “Where we need to place the ball and get that wide look at the court, not just see our guys but the court at one time so they can figure out where to pass the ball.”
A total of 10 miscues hurt Danbury in the opening stanza and El Campo took advantage. The Ricebirds opened up an 18-6 lead behind eight points from Pflugharpt. El Campo built a 18-10 advantage but the Panthers scored the last four points in the quarter. A bucket by Wilson and Matt Dees got Danbury within eight points.
Wilson opened the second period with back-to-back treys to bring the Panthers within two points, 18-16. But that’s the closest Danbury got to El Campo.
“I’ve got two starters that have never played for me before and five practices and we are still trying to figure some things out,” coach Wilson said. “In the next two or three weeks with some practices we can get to understand where we have to be at a particular time.”
Also participating in the round robin tournament are Hitchcock, Boling, Needville and Gary.
Joel Luna is the sports editor for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 237-0160.
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