The Pahrump Valley High School girls' basketball team welcomed an 11-day break that will allow it to get some much-needed rest -- and an opportunity to practice.

The Lady Trojans, 43-38 losers to Class 4-A Las Vegas Cheyenne Monday, return to action Dec. 21 at home against Class A power Pahranagat Valley Alamo. On Dec. 22, they travel to Las Vegas to take on Clark, one of the schools that will be in the 4-A Sunset Region Sunset Division in 2008-2009.

The boys, 8-4 as they travel to Las Vegas Trinity Christian tonight, will also play Alamo and Clark.

On Dec. 27-28-29, the boys are at Bishop, Calif., for a tournament; on those same dates, the PV girls, now 11-1, are at the Las Vegas Classic, hosted by Centennial.

Coach Bob Hopkins girls and the homestanding Desert Shields battled throughout with neither team ever leading by more than six points.

The defenses set the tone in the first quarter as the Lady Trojans led 5-4 following a last second shot by the Desert Shields. The offenses began to get untracked in the second quarter. The Lady Trojans held a slim 18-16 halftime lead.

The Desert Shields struck quickly to begin the third quarter, opening up leads of 25-20 and 29-24. The Trojans were able to rally at the end of the third quarter and trailed 28-29.

The Trojans had successfully kept the Desert Shields in check by strategically backing off select players daring the Desert Shields to take long range jump shots.

The Desert Shields finally found their mark with four minutes remaining in the game with the score knotted at 34-34 to open a 39-35 lead with just 2:16 left.

Pahrump Valley could not draw any closer, suffering its first loss of the season by the score of 38-43.

Megan Meads paced the Trojans with 14 points and seven rebounds. Kristi Daffer added six points and a team high 11 rebounds. Brittney Lindgren was active throughout, contributing five points, eight rebounds and eight assists.