Farwell ends its season

VEGA, Texas — It was an abrupt end to the basketball season Tuesday night for the Farwell Steers.

Clarendon, ranked second in Class 2A, opened a 23-6 lead after one quarter and held Farwell at bay the rest of the way for a 58-49 victory in a 2A area round playoff game at Vega H.S.

Farwell (25-4) had the better of it in the second and fourth quarters, but couldn’t overcome the Broncos’ dominance in the first and third stanzas. Clarendon (22-4) defeated Floydada 62-52 in a third-round contest on Friday night and moved into the regional semifinals against Christoval, to be played either Monday or Tuesday.

“We had (a season-most) 31 turnovers, and that kind of makes it a little difficult,” Steers coach Shane Perkins said. “We had some foul trouble to try to overcome, too, but our kids battled hard.”

Junior Lamarcus Penigar led three players in double figures for Clarendon with 15 points, while senior Donovan Thompson scored 13 and sophomore Sylvester Ballard chipped in 11.

Farwell pulled to 34-23 at halftime, but the Steers committed 13 turnovers in the third period and were outscored 13-5 to trail by 19 entering the final canto.

“I thought we had some momentum coming out (after halftime), but we started turning the ball over again,” Perkins said. “(Lack of) turnovers has been a strength of ours all year. It took us a while to get used to their speed.”

Senior Jose Rodriguez led Farwell with 14 points, while senior Jonathan Mora finished with 10.