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Eagles Wrap Up Season On Top
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The Eagles of Cardozo Middle School wrapped up their girls basketball season during the week by winning the 8th grade championship on their home courts and taking second place in the 7th grade tournament conducted at Teel.

While the Eagles won three games in as many nights at Cardozo to finish the season 12-3, Jennifer Tapia was named most valuable player of the 8th grade tournament.

In that tournament, the Eagles played tenacious team defense for the entire 28 minutes of Tuesday night's game to defeat Denair, 40-8. Alyssa Adams was the standout as she put heavy pressure on the defense, and mounted an all-out attack to lead the Eagles with 16 points, six steals and four assists.

Seventh grade student Andrea Perez filled in to score four points, as did Jennifer Manriquez.

All 11 girls formed an unstoppable unit, jumping on top of Denair, 14-1, in the first quarter and continuing the pressure.

On Wednesday night, the Eagles again jumped on their opponents, this time from Glick, to lead 21-0 by halftime, and ultimately win by 36-6.

The Eagles attack was extremely well balanced. Four girls, Monique Galvan, Manriquez, Adams and Tapia all scored eight points each.

Alex Arana, Stesha Orr and Mytee Castillo chipped in with point saving hustle and hard-nosed defense.

Perez again came off the bench to add her unstoppable energy and four more points.

Thursday night again saw a tremendous group effort by the 8th graders as Cardozo challenged a full court pressure and put away a tough Somerset team 53-23.

Led by the fearsome foursome of Adams, Tapia, Galvan and Manriquez, the Eagles surged ahead in the second half after leading by only 10 points at halftime.

Meanwhile in a the seventh grade tournament played at Teel, the Eagles won the first game against Denair 22-12 and edged Glick 14-12 in the second encounter but lost the championship game against El Portal 28-16.

Against Denair, the Eagles came out strongly, dominating the rebounding on the offensive end with an excellent job by Melina Guzman in grabbing offensive boards.

Many girls contributed to the wnning effort. Leading the way was Jessica Hutson who scored most of her points off fast breaks. Great defense was played by Amanda Cagle, Kaitlyn Deabenderfer, Aimee Lopez and Estefania Zamora.

The halftime score was 12-4 in Cardozo's favor. The second half was much like the first. The bench contributed solid efforts by Ruth Nunez, Paula Mathewson, Aimee Felix and Mikalya Venson.

Breanne Magana and Nunez boxed out well, and Mathewson and Benson handled the ball strongly. Stefani Araujo and Felix showed great offensive effort, hustling on every play, diving for loose balls and penetrating the open lanes.

The second game, against Glick, was a nail biter. This was the two teams second meeting, and the Eagles had something to prove after losing in the first encounter.

Stamdouts on the boards were Melina Guzman, Nunez and Magana, who boxed out on the defensive end while grabbing boards on the defensive side.

Cagle and Zamora played great defense in holding the Glick offense to only a few points in the first half.

Deabenderfer and Araujo did an excellent job in controlling Glick's starting point guard, their biggest threat.

The bench played well again, Mathewson and Stephanie Romero hustling in defense while Hutson and Araujo kept the Eagles in the game by being aggressive with the ball and penetrating on every play.

Highlight of the game came in the final four seconds when Cagle passed the ball in toward the basket and Magana who jumped strongly and made the winning bucket as time ran out.

In Thursday's third and final game, that against El Portal for the tournament title, the Eagles were trailing, 13-8, at halftime. Cardozo's defense went downhill in the third quarter and El Portal led, 22-8, by its close. They lost despite a desperate rally in the last quarter.

Hutson was the leading scorer for Cardozo, with the rest of the team soldidly behind her. The Eagles ended the tournament in second place.