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T-Birds in Playoff Hunt Lose to Troopers.
The Thunderbirds were ranked high in the El Paso poll and so was Eastwood. So, when the Troopers came to Coronado to play it was to make a playoff bid more likely.
Instead of a big win, the T-Birds stalled at the end and Eastwood made off with a tough away win.
With less than 3-minutes to go the Troopers held a slim lead 47-44. The T-Birds had played a tough and focused game up to that point. Both teams were playing at a high level. But the gas tank just ran out for Coronado as the last 2 -minutes were where the game got away from the T-Birds.
 The T-Birds cut the Eastwood lead to 1-point, but that was as close as they could come to overtaking the Troopers. With several opportunities to take the lead Coronado could not make any kind of shot.
Troopers converted their shots and free throws at the end but the T-Birds were not so fortunate. They could not hit from outside, Mauricio Cheda was strong inside and got fouled but could not make the free throw shots and tip-ins didn’t go the T-Birds way. The T-Birds could not score a point from that point on and the Troopers added free throws to increase the lead to 5-points.
In the end, it was a tough loss for the T-Birds as the Troopers won 53-48. McNally said that "both teams played extremely large...
it was extremely close.
As for the T-Birds being stuck on 48, McNally said "we didn’t execute down at the end... but that was their defense ... they did a good job.
They put up a lot of stops out their...
As for the misses from the free throw lane, McNally says "we had our chances... no doubt... no doubt... we had our chances. It could have gone either way. We didn’t go to the freet hrow line and do whaI wanted us to do... we missed four down the line" at the end of the game.
McNally is optimistic about the T-Birds chances of getting into the playoffs.
(Photos: Brax- Valley Publishing Company)
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