Sports and Outdoors

 Lake Info

Normal Lake Level is 322.00 feet above Mean Sea Level.
Current level for Cedar Creek Lake is: 319.37
Water Temperature:
48 degrees - top
47 degrees - bottom

Hawks fly past Panthers
Monitor Staff Reports
MABANK–Mabank Panther playoff hopes took a hit Tuesday, when the visiting Red Oak Hawks used an early lead to get past the Panthers, 58-45.
Now 14-8 on the season, the Panthers fell to 3-5 in District 15-4A basketball play, while Red Oak improved to 13-13 and 5-4 in loop action.
Mabank trails Red Oak and Terrell (4-4) for the district’s final playoff spot, with Lancaster still unbeaten at 9-0 and West Mesquite in second place at 6-3.

Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
Mabank's Jacob Woodard (24) and a Red Oak Hawk collide in front of the Mabank bench during the first half of Mabank's 58-45 loss to the visiting Hawks Tuesday.

The Panthers were scheduled to visit the Mesquite Poteet Pirates (11-13, 3-6) in a critical road contest Friday, before returning home to welcome winless (0-8) Forney Tuesday, Feb. 10, with a 6 p.m. sub-varsity contest opening the evening’s slate.
Next Friday, Feb. 13, the Panthers will face Lancaster, and then wind up the second round of district play and the season at home Tuesday, Feb. 17, against the West Mesquite Wranglers.
Red Oak used a strong start to get an early lead on the Panthers Tuesday, and then maintained that margin through the rest of the contest.
The Hawks opened a 14-8 edge in the first quarter, and padded their lead out to 12 points at halftime, 27-15, by holding the Panthers to no baskets in the second quarter.
Kolton Browning scored five points from the free throw line, hitting 5-of-8 attempts, while Trevor Peele hit two free throws in the period.
The Panthers were unable to cut the margin in the second half, although six Panthers scored buckets.
Browning finished with a team-high 15 points, with Peele adding nine and Cameron Tucker seven (including a 3-point basket).
Both Mickey Pycha and Tyler Fisher finished with five points each, with Jacob Woodard adding a first-quarter trey for his only points, and Griffin Marshall hitting one basket in the third quarter.
 

Kemp girls blast Eustace, 57-34
Monitor Staff Reports
EUSTACE–A 19-5 first-quarter run helped propel the visiting Kemp Lady Yellowjackets past the Eustace Lady Bulldogs 57-34 Tuesday.
Now 5-3 in District 14-3A basketball play, the Lady ’Jackets have clinched no less than a tie for the district’s third-place playoff berth, while the Lady Bulldogs fell to 0-8.
A Lady ’Jacket win at home Friday night over 3-5 Mineola could secure a playoff game – a first for the Kemp girls in recent memory, at least a decade, maybe longer.
Eustace was scheduled to visit Wills Point Friday, and will wind up the second round of district and the regular season at home Tuesday, Feb. 10, against the Van Lady Vandals, opening with a 4:30 p.m. sub-varsity contest.
Kemp also will wind up the season on the road Tuesday against 15th-ranked Canton, also opening at 4:30 p.m.
Lady ’Jacket senior Meagan Lacy keyed the first-quarter run Tuesday, hitting two 3-point baskets while scoring nine of Kemp’s 19 points.
The Kemp girls had a good outside shooting night, with four players hitting eight treys.
 

Monitor Photo/Kerry Yancey
Kemp Lady Yellowjacket senior Chelsey Mulvaney (41) looks for an open teammate around the defense of Eustace Lady Bulldog freshman Catania Grant during Kemp's 57-34 win over hosting Eustace Tuesday.
 

Eustace picked up the scoring in the second quarter, staying within three points of the Lady ’Jackets, but could not cut into the Kemp lead by halftime.
It didn’t get any better for the Lady Bulldogs in the second half, as the Lady ’Jackets had strong play on the boards from freshman Candace Rose, helping to hold Eustace to 16 points in the half.
Kemp outscored the Lady Bulldogs by one in the third quarter and by five in the fourth period to forge the final 23-point margin.
Kemp sophomore Michelle Ritterbach led all scorers with 12 points, hitting one trey, while Lacy finished with 12 points, Amanda Lawrence had 10 (including two treys), Brittany Simmons had nine (three treys), Rose five, Shannon Shipp two points and Brittany Henderson chipped in a free throw.
Sophomore post Allie Cass led the Lady Bulldogs with 11 points, while Ashley Watkins and Nicole McNeel both finished with six points and Jessica McConathy added three points.
The Lady Bulldogs also got two points each from Catania Grant, Megan Renteria and Vanessa Lopez, along with free throws from Harmony Allen and Jenny McConathy.
 

5 reasons to check your boat’s propeller
Special to The Monitor
ALEXANDRIA, Va.–Selecting the right propeller for your boat’s motor is sometimes as much art as it is science. That’s because every boater uses their boat in different ways and under different conditions.
The January issue of Seaworthy from BoatU.S. Marine Insurance recently looked at why you may want to take a closer look at your prop this winter and ask yourself these five questions:
1. Is your boat slow to come onto plane? Pitch is the theoretical distance a prop makes though the water in one revolution.
If a prop has too much pitch, the boat will have a lousy “hole shot,” meaning its ability to get on plane quickly will suffer, similar to trying to start a car from a stop in third gear.
Your tachometer can also indicate potential problems with pitch.
Assuming you have a clean, well-maintained boat, your boat’s engine should reach within 100-200 revolutions per minute of its rated wide open throttle (WOT). If not, a prop shop may need to adjust pitch.
2. Does your engine over-rev and boat seem slow? If there is too little pitch in the prop, the engine will over-rev and go past its redline at WOT.
A prop shop can also add more pitch or recommend a new prop. Both under- and over-revving can seriously damage an engine.
3. Did you run over a log, hit a sandbar or stump? You may have forgotten about that little bump that happened last summer, but your prop hasn’t, and it could affect performance when you launch in the spring.
One prop shop proprietor reported to Seaworthy that 80 percent of the damaged propellers that come in to his repair facility look healthy at first glance – until they are reviewed with computerized repair equipment.
4. Do you want to go faster? The first place to look is the prop. Stainless-steel props, with thinner and stronger blades, allow slightly more speed.
However, the trade-off is that they are also more costly to purchase and repair, and should you strike a submerged object, a stainless prop has the potential to cause greater lower unit damage than an aluminum prop.
5. Using too much fuel? It’s a good idea to monitor fuel flow, either with a fuel flow meter or by doing the math.
When fuel economy starts to suffer, the first thing to check is for propeller damage, as a dinged prop can easily rob you up to 10 percent in fuel costs.