The sounds of swishes, squeaking sneakers, and screaming coaches resounded through the Vaquero gym Nov. 22 through 24 in the annual Vaquero Shootout.
Eight teams participated in the double elimination tournament that included some of the best the conference could offer.
The Lady Vaqs looked to take game one on Friday night only to have the Fullerton Hornets provide a massive buzzkill. Glendale lost a heartbreaker 60 to 55 to drop game one. In the final seconds, the Lady Vaqs had the ball down by three after a costly turnover by Fullerton with about 43 seconds remaining in the fourth.
Lady Vaq Samantha Pyros took a pass deep in the painted area with her back to the basket. She backed down her defender, their bodies crashing back and forth. Pyros took her defender baseline with a spin move to lay the ball up into the basket after she got fouled. Her basket and foul call were dismissed as the line ref called a travel. Shouts
of “bad call, ref!” from the stands bounced from one side of the gym to the other. This put Glendale in a must foul situation and
crushed all hopes of a comeback.
Head coach Carrie Miller ordered her team into the locker room for a pep talk to talk to them. The meeting was quick. Miller had this to say about the questionable call.
“No,”said Miller. “I think she kept her foot, but I will watch the film and double check on it.”
Day two of the tournament had a very different outcome. Fueled by the controversy of the previous night, the Lady Vaqs came out of the gates strong.
“The biggest thing I wanted to see from my team is to play together,” said Miller. “Yesterday there were a lot of I’s and Me’s.”
Glendale was much more polished this time around. In game one on day two, Glendale only made one three pointer compared to the 12 in game two. Guard Mary Karapetyan contributed 22 points in just 24 minutes on Saturday. Forward Gabriela Beltran was off to a strong start with 12 points until she went down with a knee injury. Beltran was the leading scorer in game one with 17 points.
Game three pitted the Lady Vaqs against Irvine Valley in a battle for second best in the tournament on Sunday.
GCC was held to 28 percent shooting as they were burned 76 to 61 by the Lasers and dropped their record to 3-3 in overall.
Lady Vaquero Elise Mejia led Glendale in scoring with 18 points, two assists and two rebounds. Guards Mary Karapetyan and Selin Gomez followed right behind her scoring 10 points apiece.
Beltran may have been affected by the knee injury suffered in game two. She shot a mere one for seven and scored just seven points in the loss by the Lady Vaqs.
Glendale hopes to rebound at the Chaffey Tournament Friday through Sunday.
