After taking over a month off from competitive basketball, you might expect the Park Gilbert Buccaneers (1-1) to come out sluggish and a little rusty.  You would not be wrong.  The Buccaneers had trouble finding the range early and was never able to get back on track as they fell to Arizona Christian (3-0) 71-56 at the PHHacility in Phoenix, Ariz.

"The biggest thing about tonight was we started slow," said Buccaneers head coach Jeff Fore. "We got a little frustrated with ourselves and that can be expected when you stop and start so much as we have had to do."

Park Gilbert only scored six points in the first quarter which put them behind by nine and then gave up 25 points in the second quarter to the Firestorm to give themselves a 40 to 24 advantage at the half.  The Bucs had 14 turnovers in the first half, seven of them came from point guard Destinee Vigil in an unusual performance for the speedy guard from Belen N.M.

"I thought Destinee started slow," said Fore. "Coming out of COVID and missing our exhibition game against New Mexico State, It's really her first game action for a month. But what she did in the second half really allowed us to execute in the second half.

Despite all the early turnovers, Vigil managed to still have an outstanding game.  She scored 21 points, with eight rebounds, three steals and five assists.  She only turned the ball over twice in the second half. Center Marlene Salazar added 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists to help the Buccaneers cause.  

In the second half, the made a game of it outscoring the Firestorm 32-31, but it just wasn't enough to overcome the deficit.  The Bucs played this game without two of their starters as guard Elise Young was not cleared by doctors and small forward Allison Hadaway was out with an ankle injury.

"I never like to use not having certain players as an excuse," said Fore. "We have to have the ability to get downhill better and those two definitely allow us to do that. We became to perimeter oriented and we didn't shoot the ball very well."

Park Gilbert only shot 34 percent for the game from the floor and 28 percent from beyond the arc. The Firestorm shot 42 percent from the field and 42 percent from three-point range which ultimately was the difference.

The Bucs get a chance to get right back at it on Thursday, December 10 as they take on SAGU-AIC for the second time this season.  Game time is 8 p.m.