Goldberg finds form as Panthers smother Spartans

Marcie Goldberg made a total of 10 3-pointers during the Palo Verde girls basketball team's first 19 games this season.

The senior forward nearly doubled that total Tuesday.

Goldberg hit seven 3-pointers and finished with 21 points, all in the first half, as the host Panthers rolled to a 74-32 victory over Cimarron-Memorial in a nonleague game.

"Over her career here, she's been one of the best pure shooters we have," Palo Verde coach Phil Clarke said. "As far as from 3, she's had a couple of games that were decent, but this was kind of like her breakout game for that, which is good.

"She works real hard, she just hasn't been hitting. She's been getting good looks and taking good shots, and it finally all clicked."

Goldberg entered play Tuesday shooting 20 percent from beyond the 3-point line but made seven of her 10 attempts against the Spartans (5-6), including five in the second quarter. She hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put Palo Verde on top 31-11 midway through the second and had two more as part of a 20-4 run that gave the Panthers a 51-17 halftime lead.

Goldberg also contributed a team-high seven rebounds and had four steals.

"I told them at halftime, my favorite part offensively was how unselfish they played," Clarke said. "Marcie got hot and they did a good job of actually trying to get her the ball. Sometimes they'll kind of be oblivious, but to actually make an effort to get her the ball and making that extra pass in the first half, I thought they played real unselfish."

Paulina Silcox had 12 points, eight assists and five steals for Palo Verde (11-9), and Brooklyn Cruz overcame early foul trouble to finish with 12 points, five assists and four rebounds.

The Panthers' fullcourt pressure forced 23 first-half turnovers, and Palo Verde ended the game with 19 steals while holding the Spartans to 31.4 percent shooting from the floor (11-for-35).

"We've been really stressing over the last week or so the effort defensively ... and, two, not letting up," Clarke said. "Sometimes we'll go on a little run, a team will call timeout and we'll kind of let up. I thought we did a good job for the first time in a while of not letting a team back in there."

Ashli Tyus led Cimarron with 13 points and four assists, and teammate Amoura Whitney scored nine. Chardonae Alston added six rebounds for the Spartans.

The game was played with a running clock for the final 12:08, and Palo Verde didn't attempt a shot in the fourth quarter until there was less than a minute remaining.

"It's a good momentum builder for a couple girls; Marcie shooting, a couple other girls who haven't played as well as they'd like to," Clarke said. "I thought they kind of got back on the right track, which is a good time because now we're back to what counts come playoffs, and that's league play."

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ