Before crosstown rivals the Miami Vandals and the Globe Tigers did battle on the basketball court, they honored long-time Miami coaches Dickie Vargas and Larry Anthony, who both passed away this year and led the Vandals to state championships.

A term like “bitter rivals” doesn’t describe the community respect between the two schools that are just 4.8 miles apart.

The Miami Vandals dropped a rough 77-42 game to crosstown rival Globe High School last week on the road in front of a capacity crowd.

“I wish we had a little more push, but rivalry games are fun,” said Miami head coach Ken Vargas. “Everyone remembers those moments but I think we could have done a lot better.”

The Globe Tigers jumped out to a 24-13 first quarter lead over their rivals and extended that lead to 40-22 at halftime.

The Vandals never threatened the Tigers in the second half as both teams scored 14 points in the third quarter. Globe opened up the game in the final quarter, outscoring the Vandals by 17.

“We struggled through the whole game, but it’s an experience thing,” said Vargas. “Four or five of them are playing in their first Globe-Miami game and despite being upperclassmen, we are young in experience.”

Eric Troglia led the Vandals with a team-high 13 points while Kaleb Petty added 10 points.

“Globe is a talented team and they are going to do well as the season rolls on because they have really good ball players,” said Vargas of his team’s rival. “I noticed that they see each other on the floor and that’s experience, they can feel where each other is at.”

The Vandals travel to Show Low on Dec. 22 before taking time off for the holidays.