Comfort Deer drop season opener

Comfort High opened its 2022-23 girls basketball season Tuesday at home in its new multi-purpose facility and fell to Nueces Canyon.

The Lady Panthers won the game 42-31 and drops Comfort to 0-1 to start the new year. CHS is back on the court Saturday when the team visits Junction.

Comfort kept it close early in Tuesday’s game and was only trailing by a point at the end of the first quarter, 10-9. Nueces Canyon dropped in 10 more in the second, compared to 7 for the Deer to open up a 20-16 halftime lead.

The Lady Panthers started to pull away in the third after winning the period, 12-4, to build a 32-20 lead. Nueces Canyon was very consistent and dropped in 10 points in the fourth quarter, the third time they hit for 10 points in a period.

Comfort did outscore the visitors in the final stanza for the only quarter that they won, but it was only by a point, 11-10, and the Lady Panthers went on to post a 9-point win.

Comfort hurt itself by only going 1 of 8 at the line to leave 7 points at the charity stripe.

No one was in double digits for the Deer, but Lula Jaime was close and paced the team with 8 points. Katelyn Cook netted 6, Morgan Hansen finished with 4, while Emily Rivera, Jackie Zapata, Bailey Feldman, Danielle Ruelas, Ava Govea and Katie Haffner all chipped in with 2 points apiece, while Jael Hernandez hit a free throw.

Meghan Davis didn’t score but was big on the board with 12 rebounds, while Feldman snagged 10 boards, Zapata and Hansen both grabbed 4 rebounds each.

Hernandez and Cook came up with 5 steals apiece, Rivera and Jaime had 3 steals each, while Hernandez also dished out 3 assists.