Injuries, inexperience affects Coyotes

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune

Madera’s Rylie Fernandez drives to the hoop to score two of her team-high 13 points. She almost doubled her teammates’ output in Friday’s 42-20 loss to Golden Valley of Merced.

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Earlier in the week, the Madera Coyotes girls basketball team lost forward/center Aaliyah String to a concussion. Then, in its first game of the Cen-Cal Holiday Invitational girls basketball at Torres, they lost forward Brooke Houghton in the first half.

Those two big injuries for the Coyotes, and the inexperience of their backcourt led to a 42-20 loss Friday to the Golden Valley-Merced Cougars in the first round of the Cen-Cal tournament.

Madera plays Fresno Christian at 10 a.m. on Friday morning.