Scorpions Still Confident

The defending District 1-4A basketball team lost four of its first five games and needed a last-second shot in overtime to get their only win.

Farmington's basketball team isn't concerned.

They beat a weary Ignacio team in overtime Saturday to get win No. 2 and expect to keep getting better.

Luis Acosta, subject of today's prep newsmaker, returned from a broken hand on Thursday. Football's District Player of the Year, running QB Tyler Hough, should return to the court soon as well.

Another football/basketball player, Daniel Lacey, will miss a few days with a broken nose.

"When we get everyone there and playing basketball, which we'll be, hopefully, completely healthy after Christmas, the guys should come together fine," coach Kevin Holman said.

FHS (2-4) gets another couple chances at wins Tuesday (at Durango) and Monday (vs. Gallup) and could get back to .500 by 2010.

The Scorpions don't play a district game until Jan. 19 at Piedra Vista.

The team that wins the regular season gets an automatic bid to the state tournament. Last year, the Scorps were the only local team in the 4A field after the seeding committee left out Shiprock.

FHS got a No. 12 seed and lost to Alex Kirk and Los Alamos.

Holman would like to win as many games as possible before district. Should the Scorps return to the state tournament, they'd like a better first-round matchup.

"With the seeding, you've still got to win some of those games leading up to district and that's what we're hoping to do," he said.

Acosta thinks the team's defense is playing well enough right now. He says the key to this year's team will be finding ways to score. He stressed limiting turnovers, a problem thus far, but ultimately, that means one thing: "We need to make open shots."

Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher