Fine’ performance, but no win for T-birds
Jeff Moses
The Mesa Community College Lady Thunderbirds had a tough time coming back from Thanksgiving, falling to the Arizona Western Matadors 51-42 in their first outing since Turkey Day.
The ladies of Mesa came on strong, taking an early lead in the first half, going up by five and forcing an early Western timeout.
Following the timeout, Western took the lead and didn’t relinquish it again, though only staying on top of the T-birds by a small margin, the largest being the nine-point final deficit.
The T-birds had strong showings from team leaders and veterans Alli Gloyd and Haley Vennard, scoring 11 and 7 points respectively, with Gloyd pulling down seven rebounds and Vennard five.
“We definitely knew we had Western. We knew we had to come out hard. I feel like we competed, but I don’t know. I guess we just have to get ready for round two,” Gloyd said. “We just need to rebound harder next time.”
Kalasia Green also put in a quality performance, scoring nine points and pulling down nine boards to lead the T-birds in rebounding.
“We did fine, but fine’s not good enough,” Thunderbird head coach Kori Stephenson said. She said the lady T-birds need to “be more aggressive” moving forward with the season.
