Sports

With critical playoff positioning on the line on Tuesday, Fort Stockton put forth their best offensive quarter of the season to secure a victory in their first district home game of the season against Pecos (1-13).

The Prowlers netted 27 points in the final quarter of play – their highest total of the season in any eight-minute span – en route to a 45-21 win.

Fort Stockton head coach Lea Daggett emphasized the importance of the victory considering the tier of teams in the Prowlers’ district.

Instilling confidence in his shooters has been front and center of head coach Zack Roberson’s blueprint for the Panthers success this season.

That confidence has helped translate to the emergence of a new top scorer days before the district schedule begins.

Senior Ethan Acosta scored a career-high 21 points in the Panthers 51-38 win at Van Horn on Jan. 6 to close out regular season non-district play.

Holiday tournaments are a good time for high school basketball coaches to give younger players some reps and gauge how their team plays against competition they wouldn’t ordinarily see. Fort Stockton girls coach Lea Daggett has been using the non-district portion of the Prowlers’ season to give incoming freshmen quality playing time and figure out his starting rotation heading into the district portion of their schedule. 

With a challenging district slate looming, Fort Stockton put forth their best shooting game of the season and gained some valuable momentum to close their non-district home schedule on Tuesday against 1A Fort Davis.

Senior Ethan Acosta scored a season-high 13 points and converted two of the Panthers’ seven 3-pointers to lead his team to a 67-41 win.

Battling through adversity will be key component to the Panthers success in district play starting in a few weeks.

Fort Stockton successfully did that and took a step forward from a season ago in their home gym at the West Texas Shootout last week.

The Panthers’ six-game outing and sixth place finish was headlined by a 61-58 victory against local rival Alpine.

See story in Thursday's print and e-edition.