Beyer outworks Merced girls for win

Early in the season, basketball coaches can expect their team to struggle in certain areas. Players are still learning the offense and getting comfortable back on the court.

One area they shouldn’t struggle in is effort.

That’s why Merced High girls coach Rob Pierce was disappointed after the Bears’ 46-40 loss to Beyer in the opening round of the 21st Annual Lady Cougars Classic on Thursday afternoon at Golden Valley High.

“We have got to have more effort,” said Pierce, whose team fell to 1-1. “(Beyer) outworked us to loose balls and tough rebounds. We took a lot of bad shots, and to compound those bad shots our girls stood around. Nobody was crashing the boards or getting back on defense.”

With a team returning three senior guards in Lexi Thompson, Symone Gilliam and Jordan Pierce you also don’t expect to see Merced turning the ball over 26 times against a team like Beyer that wasn’t applying much pressure.

The Bears turned the ball over 10 times in the second quarter that helped the Patriots (2-0) begin the quarter with an 11-0 run to open up a 19-12 lead.

“That’s going to be our strength,” Rob Pierce said. “We’re going to depend on our back court. We need our three senior guards to carry us. We just didn’t get it done today.”

Thompson struggled to find her shot most of the game but led Merced with 11 points. Pierce finished with nine points and Gilliam added eight.

Despite Merced’s struggles, the game was there for the taking.

Gilliam scored on a rebound and added another basket in transition to help the Bears end the third quarter tied at 30-30.

However, Beyer scored five quick points to start the fourth quarter to take a 35-30 lead on a putback and a three-pointer from Tee Roberts with 5:50 left in the game.

Merced continued its cold shooting in the fourth quarter, making just 3 of 11 shots in the final eight minutes. Thompson made her first three-pointer of the game to cut the lead to 45-40 with 30 seconds left.

Thompson and Pierce both missed on threes with 20 seconds left that would have cut the lead to two points.

Roberts scored six of her eights points in the fourth quarter to help Beyer pick up the win. Cameron Ylagen led the Patriots with 11 points.

“They worked harder than us and we paid the price for it,” Gilliam said. “We have to talk to our team and get us all on the same page. We have to have one team goal. We have to regroup, come back and play our next game. It’s frustrating because this is fixable. It’s not stuff that we don’t know how to do. We have got to give a bigger effort.”

The Bears will play Franklin of Stockton in a consolation game Friday at 3:30 p.m.

Other games from the tournament:

Buhach Colony 48, Central Valley 41 – The Thunder used an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to surge ahead. Kaylee Lynch drained three treys in the fourth quarter and led Buhach Colony (2-0) with 24 points. The Thunder will play Golden Valley tonight at 8 p.m. in a winners bracket contest.

Golden Valley 59, El Capitan 21 – The Cougars (2-0) outscored the Gauchos 19-0 in the first quarter. Stephanie Moore led the way with 19 points, six rebounds, six steals and four assists. Abbee Croninger added 13 points for the Cougars.

Wanisha Gary paced El Capitan with seven points. El Capitan will play Central Valley today at 5 p.m.

In the other first round game, Madera won by forfeit because Franklin of Stockton did not show up.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 7:55 PM with the headline "Beyer outworks Merced girls for win."