Bears manage to pull past Eagles

The Coolidge coaching staff summoned a much needed time-out and basically read the riot act to the team.

“What is this?” shouted an assistant with head coach Dave Glasgow also chiming in and demanding a “we need to do better” call to his players.

Better the Bears did as they posted 10 points to Flagstaff’s zero and took a handy 28-19 buffer going into the main break.

For the Eagles shooting guard Connor O’Brien-Piubeni and Angel Guerrero were helping their side stay in touch with a frustrated Coolidge team that was struggling to add points to the scoreboard.

Bears shooting guard Brayden Gant, Carlos Coronado and captain Belclem Namegabe were the standouts for the Bears in the first half with Dru Madrid stepping up in the final three minutes of the half, posting some much needed buckets.

The Bears shook off their scoring slumber in the second half and began to take full control of the game. Despite a valiant effort for Flagstaff by small forward Jake Centner who posted eight points and was assisted by a busy shooting guard in Harrison Fritsch, Coolidge stepped up a gear and brushed off any Eagles challenge.

Bears point guard Omar Miguel unleashed an absolute hot-hand three-point streak. Everything Miguel touched turned to scoreboard gold as he bucketed four three-point shots and was easily the player of the game. When he wasn’t shooting three’s he was bounce passing to his teammates and making steals on the Eagles offense.

Ja’kwon Jordan and Isaiah Slaughter also chimed in on the scoring side with the Bears cruising to a 65-43 victory over the plucky Flagstaff team.

Coolidge coach Dave Glasgow told PinalCentral he was pleased in how his players responded to the call of stepping up and lifting their effort on the court.

“We defended better in the second half and we executed some good offense but we still turned the ball over way too much which is why we’re putting up 65 points a game instead of 80,” Glasgow said.

The Bears coach was full of praise of the game played by Miguel.

“I thought Omar played really well with all of those three point shots. Coronado did a nice job getting the ball to him and I thought Madrid also had a really good game and played pretty well in all phases,” Glasgow said.