Stallions earn first sweep of Coyotes basketball

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune

Madera South’s Arelis Chavez goes up for two of her game-high 14 points against Madera’ Shalynn Garcia during Wednesday’s victory.

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Behind a solid defensive performance, the Madera South Stallions girls basketball team recorded its first sweep over cross-town rivals Madera with a 32-20 victory at Madera South to cap off Senior Night.

Senior Arelis Chavez proved to be a force in the paint on both offense and defense. She got the crowd excited with four blocked shots. She led the Stallions with 14 points to go with six rebounds.

Senior Jonese Feliu scored nine points and Kim Prudente, one of the shortest players on the court, led both teams with nine rebounds to go with four steals and two blocked shots.

Madera didn’t have a player record double digits. Rhynne Mitchell led the Coyotes with eight points. Andrea Garcia scored five points with eight rebounds an three steals.

The Stallions got off to a quick start by scoring the first nine points of the game. Madera didn’t score its first field goal until the third quarter.

In the nine-point run, the Stallions forced seven turnovers and eight missed shots. Because Chavez was a force inside the paint, Madera settled for 3-pointers and missed six in the first quarter.

Chavez got the scoring started with a short bucket. Prudente scored on a runner. Chavez made a layup and a free throw. Feliu then picked up a steal and scored on a layup for the early lead.

Madera finally got on the scoreboard with a Jasmine Levy free throw with 4.4 seconds left in the first quarter.

Chavez started the second quarter with a short bucket, but the scoring was few and far between in the quarter. Shalynn Garcia made a free throw for the Coyotes.

Then, both teams went cold. It took three minutes before Jocelyn Barrera put back a missed shot for a 13-2 Stallions’ lead.

Rosie Perez made a free throw for the Coyotes, almost five minutes after Garcia’s free throw for a 13-3 Madera south lead at the half.

Chavez put back her own miss to open a 12-point lead.

Mitchell made two free throws, but Chavez made one-of-two.

Mitchell made another free throw to begin an 0-0 run. Andrea Garcia put back a missed shot. Shalynn Garcia and Mitchell hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the Stallions’ lead to 16-14.

Madera South responded with five straight points for a 21-14 lead at the end of the third. Chavez started the run with a free throw. Barrera and Chavez hit short jumpers for the seven-point lead.

After Levy made a free throw for the Coyotes, Feliu scored on a layup. Mitchell cut the lead down to six with a layup.

Chavez and Feliu made free throws to get the lead to eight with five minutes left in the game.

Madera couldn’t keep up with the Stallions and committed seven turnovers in the first four minutes of the fourth.

Prudente hit an off-balance 10-foot jumper at the shot clock buzzer to get the lead to 10. Then, Prudente found a cutting Feliu for a layup for a 6-0 run and a 29-17 lead with 2:17 left in the game.

Madera got three free throws from Andrea Garcia to cut the lead to nine with a minute left.

Feliu put the game away with help from Prudente. Feliu stole the ball from Madera and pushed the ball up the court. Prudente got a pass from Feliu and threw it back to her while going out of bounds. Feliu cut through the paint for a layup and a 31-20 lead with less than 30 seconds left.

Prudente put the final touches on the game with a free throw for a 32-20 victory.