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At Los Lunas’ Holiday tournament, the host school disposed of Santa Fe High, 66-30, to send the Demonettes into Friday’s consolation semifinals
By Arnie Leshin
It was the final shot of regulation time, and when it ticked off the side of the rim, the St. Michael’s girl’s basketball team and fans breathed a collective sigh of relief.
This became a 53-50 win for the host school in day two of the annual Lady Horsemen Christmas tournament round robin at Perez-Shelley gymnasium, but it almost erupted into a disastrous turn-of-events when Cobre, behind almost all of the game, almost stole the contest or might have sent it into overtime.
It was 5-foot-4 senior Angelina Bencomo who tossed up the shot from the sideline just inside midcourt at the final buzzer. The Indians prayed it would go in, but it fell off the mark and St. Michael’s survived to win its second game of the tournament.
The Lady Horsemen trailed only once, and that was at 18-16 shortly after the second quarter began. Earlier, they were up 7-0 before Cobre (7-5) made a bucket. And after getting the lead back again in the second quarter, led several times by 7 to 9 points.
Then came the hectic final minutes.
St. Michael’s was up 53-44 with 2:11 left. A steal and layup by Indians’ 5-10 freshman Skkyla Guck cut the gap to 53-46. Then the Lady Horsemen had trouble handling the pressure and a steal this time by 5-4 senior Jessica Martinez brought another layup and a 53-48 score.
Then St. Michael’s senior forward Sydney Halford missed the front end of a 1-and-1 from the foul line, and Guck grabbed the rebound with the scoreboard clock reading five seconds, and tossed it down court to Bencomo, her team’s best outside shooter, and her heave from the sideline just inside midcourt almost made it, but didn’t.
Whew, it was one of those. A game that the Lady Horsemen almost gave away in evening their record to 6-6 after losing five of their first six starts.
“Turnovers hurt us,” said first-year head coach Martin Equibel, “do you know we made five straight of them to start the third quarter. We held on, made some better plays, but couldn’t put them away.”
He was especially happy for the effort of senior forward Karisa Baca, saying it was her best game of the season, and that she finally came through in a tough game like this.
“And Jodi (Gormley) had a real good second half,” he said in regard to the 5-8 senior. Carisa (Padilla) also made some important shots in the second half, and Sydney (Halford) fought out there for loose balls and rebounds.”
There was also balanced scoring that Esquible was pleased with. Baca.
Gromley and junior Joelyn Fernandez scored 10 points each, and Padilla and Halford added nine apiece.
The defense also did a better job in containing Guck, who scored 13 of her game-high 25 in the first half, but managed only two points in the third quarter.
The tournament ends today when Espanola Valley plays the 4 p.m. contest with St. Michael’s.
In the opener, Albuquerque Sandia Prep (2-6) won its first tournament game by turning back Cottonwood Classical Prep, 54-39, to drop the coyotes the 1-6.
In the middle game, it was Pojoaque Valley overcoming the challenge of Espanola Valley, 68-55, but it was close most of the way. The Elkettes (10-1) wore down the Sundevils (5-7) with their taller lineup that dominated the boards, and applied defensive pressure down the stretch for their second win in the tournament.
Pojoaque concludes by taking on Cottonwood in the 2:30 middle game today.
. . . In the Hobbs Holiday tournament, Santa Fe High dropped a 66-30 contest against Los Lunas, which is 9-1 and top ranked in 5A. It was the seventh loss in a dozen starts for the Demonettes. Santa Fe HS hung in there early on, and trailed only 29-18 at halftime.
But the Tigers went on a 22-6 run in the third quarter to open up a 51-26 lead while the Demonettes could score only 12 points to drop into the consolation semifinals. They were led by senior Adrianna Baca-Martinez with 15 points.
