Another second half burst bails Alamosa out

Alamosa junior Brenden Crowther (11) cues up one of his five three pointers in Friday's victory. Crowther was 71 percent from beyond the arc for a team leading 22 points. (Stephen Jiron/Valley Courier)

ALAMOSA — Alamosa head coach Brandon Brubacher must know his way around a half-time speech. For the second time in the past two weeks the third quarter was the biggest scoring period for the boys’ basketball team. And for the second time in the last three weeks an early rush back from the half put Alamosa back in the drivers seat. The Mean Moose defended home court against the visiting Pirates on senior night winning by a score of 64-51.

Before Friday’s game Alamosa had fallen on hard times losing 4 of their last 5. Alamosa and Pagosa Springs will have some work to do to beat the likes of Intermountain leaders Centauri (6-2) and Bayfield (5-4) come district tournament time.

Friday night Alamosa didn’t wait to get going, Brenden Crowther and Chad Jackson went a combined 3-of-5 from the three-point line to help get Alamosa to a 15-7 lead. Senior Jackson finished second in scoring with ten points.

Alamosa promptly followed that up by  going into remission in the second quarter.  The Moose allowed a 13-2 run to give the visiting Pirates the lead with just under four minutes to play in the half. Pagosa would hold on to that lead taking a 29-28 lead to the locker rooms.

Coming back from the break the two teams would play to a 33-point tie. From there the Moose would hit the jets. Back to back treys from Crowther, a trey from Nicholas Brubacher and a deuce from Ian Jackson threading his way inside and just like that Alamosa went from a tied game to an 11-point lead. Pagosa’s head coach Randy Sorenson ventured a time-out to slow the barrage his team was experiencing.

While it would work, the Pirates did finally get on the board in the second half, it was too little too late. Alamosa had the commanding lead and this time they were sure not to let up too soon. Alamosa kept their double-digit advantage through the rest of regulation. Midway through the fourth quarter Alamosa’s reserves took the court and rode the game out to its 64-51 completion. Crowther sniped his way to 22 points to lead the Moose in scoring.

Alamosa will need to warm up a lot sooner on Saturday afternoon, as the Moose will be facing the number one team in the Intermountain League, Centauri, in Plachy Hall. Things are scheduled to get going at 3:30 p.m at Adams State.