From Staff Reports
The Anna Coyotes bounced back from a tough road loss Friday to beat Commerce, 76-68, in a heated game Tuesday night.
Anna led after each quarter of the bruising contest, which saw Coyotes Ian Reutelhuber and Jordan Covey and three Tigers foul out and another Commerce player ejected.
Anna led 20-15 after one period, 35-28 at the break and 52-43 after three frames.
Commerce cut Anna's lead to five points with less than two minutes remaining, but a pair of clutch shots by Jonathan Elliott salted the game away for the Coyotes.
Covey paced Anna's offense with 21 points followed by Andre Gibbs with 17, Andrew Smith with 13, Cory Meaders with seven, Matt Foster with six, Reutelhuber with five, Chris Smith with five and Chris Gonzalez with two.
C 15 13 15 25 68
A 20 15 17 24 76
The Coyotes ran into a buzzsaw Friday night in Paris, falling to the Wildcats 70-43 for Anna's first district loss.
Paris raced to a 10-0 lead to start the game and led by 11 after one period. Andrew Smith scored 10 of his 13 points in the second frame to keep the Coyotes within striking distance, cutting the deficit to 29-22 at the break.
The Wildcats used scorching outside shooting to blow the game open early in the fourth, and the Coyotes couldn't recover.
A 8 14 9 12 43
P 19 10 22 19 70
Anna (19-7, 2-1) -- Andre Gibbs 3, Ian Reutelhuber 18, Bradley Gee 4, Jordan Covey 5, Andrew Smith 13. FT 12-19. Threes 3 (Reutelhuber 3). Fouls 20.
The Coyotes will continue district play tomorrow night in Bonham.
The junior varsity Coyotes improved to 3-1 in district play Tuesday with a 62-34 win over Commerce.
"Our overall team defense and intensity was the key to tonight's success," Anna coach Ted Mackey said. "We hit the boards and controlled the tempo with our press."
Travis Argue led the Coyotes with 13 points.
The JV Coyotes lost to Paris on Friday, 46-30.
"Their pressure proved to be too much for our team tonight," Mackey said.
Matt Williams paced the Coyotes with 16 points.