Barstow High School girls basketball: Aztecs alone on top

BARSTOW • The Barstow High School girls basketball team will play out the final two games of the season in a new position this year — leading Silverado and the rest of Desert Sky League.

The Aztecs beat the Hawks 50-45 on Tuesday to win the three-game series between the teams 2-1 and take a one-game lead in the DSL. Barstow (18-2, 9-1 DSL) had only beat Silverado (14-5, 8-2 DSL) once in four years prior to the 2009-10 season. Barstow’s win give the Aztecs the potential tie-breaker and perhaps the DSL title.

“I think we’ve been building towards this for the last four years,” Barstow coach Derrick Delton said. “Silverado has won the league for so many years in a row. We’ve been looking up to them for four years.”

The Aztecs close out the season with Victor Valley and Granite Hills but had little trouble with two squads earlier this season. Barstow outscored Victor Valley 119-82 and Granite Hills 116-27 in the teams’ two previous meetings.

Barstow may be ahead of Silverado in the standings, but the Aztecs spent much of Tuesday’s game looking up at Silverado’s center, Candice Agee. Agee, who scored 24 points, gave Barstow trouble throughout the night as the Hawks worked the ball to her in the post.

Silverado coach Tyrone Brown said Agee played well, but turnovers cost his team.

“(Agee) played well as usual,” Brown said. “We were able to get the ball down to her, and she made her shots. But we threw the ball away a lot tonight. Barstow was the better team. We didn’t lose because of the post play, or the perimeter or anything like that. We lost because Barstow got the loose balls.”

Delton said the Aztecs practiced playing the full-court press and double-teaming Agee leading into the game.

“She devastated us during the last games,” Delton said. “I think keeping our pace up got to her. She seemed to slow down late in the game. We were able to rotate Kaitlyn Parks and Megan Peacock during the game, and she had to stay in the whole game.”

Barstow senior forward Nisha Barrett also played the entire game, despite a knee injury she sustained Thursday against Burroughs. She led all scorers with 27 points and had 15 rebounds to earn a double-double. Barrett took advantage of Peacock and Parks defensive minutes against Agee and picked off seven passes during the game.
Nicole Mathews finished the game with eight rebounds and four steals.

The teams kept it close for the entire game and were tied at 41-41 with two minutes remaining in the game. However, Barrett hit Cherrelle Green with a fastbreak pass to go ahead 43-41 with 1:45 left, and the Aztecs never relinquished the lead.

Barstow travels to play Victor Valley on Tuesday before wraping up the season at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at home against Granite Hills.

BARSTOW (50)
Barrett 27, Green 10, Duran 4, Parks 4, Peacock 3, Mathews 2.
SILVERADO (45)
Agee 24, Walker 9, Watkins 4, Rodriguez 4, Gates 2, Simpson 2.

Barstow    910    15    16    —    50
Silverado7    15    10    13    —     45

3-point field goals — Barstow 3 (Green 2, Duran 1); Silverado 1 (Rodriguez 1).