Cheyenne extends Palo Verde’s skid

Nick Christensen

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005 | 9:43 a.m.

Paul Aznarez sat silently in the weight room at Cheyenne High School, surrounded by his coaches but not talking 20 minutes after Palo Verde's third consecutive loss.

He looked exhausted, sounded worse and seemed to be at a loss as to why what was the third-ranked boys' basketball team in the state is playing anything but good basketball.

"If I knew what was wrong, we'd fix it," the Palo Verde coach said after the Panthers' 50-41 loss to the Desert Shield. "I just don't know what it is right now."

Neither team came out looking ready to play. But whereas a month ago, Palo Verde might have jumped all over an opponent mustering 12, 8 and 8 points in each of the first three quarters, the Panthers themselves scored just 4, 11 and 11.

The Panthers' leading scorer, P'Allen Stinnett, finished with 15 points on 5-for-22 shooting. He had two baskets in the first three minutes of Wednesday's game, but did not have another field goal until midway through the third period.

The recent slide has been another chapter in what's been a long and tiring year for the defending 4A champions. They've had to the cope with the death of coach Phil Clarke in late December, and they've dealt with teammate Nate Schulte leaving and coming back before going out for the season with injury last week.

"The guys aren't hungry like we used to be," Stinnett said. "It's too much to handle. We weren't ready to handle all the things that have happened."

Cheyenne wasn't putting out its best performance either, despite having UNLV coach Lon Kruger on hand for what in other years would be a clash of basketball titans.

The Desert Shield had two eight-minute stretches without hitting a field goal, using free-throw shooting and tough defense on Stinnett to maintain their lead. Palo Verde center Brian Marks kept the Panthers alive with putbacks in the third quarter, totalling 11 points in the game. He also had seven rebounds.

Cheyenne's Jarrell Holman led all scorers with 17 points, 12 in the fourth quarter.

"We came out and tried to go to a zone," Holman said of his team's first-quarter defensive effort. "We keyed in on P'Allen. The last game he scored 42 points. You stop him, you stop the whole team."

Desert Shield coach Larry Johnson complimented his team's efforts guarding Stinnett.

"Basically, we realize he's a scorer. We make him take tough shots, limit his touches, and not give him easy looks," Johnson said. "We switched up guys, the guys did a really good job tonight."

Cheyenne improved to 4-4 in Northwest Division play, with Palo Verde dropping to 5-3. Both teams have a week off before playing road games -- Cheyenne at Cimarron, and Palo Verde at Shadow Ridge.

Stinnett said his teammates plan on taking the week off to regroup, both on and off the court.

"I think it's what we need, between school, homework and practice, it's well-deserved," he said. "We'll get our heads back, take a few days off and come back next week even stronger."