St. Michael’s now plays host to its annual Lady Horsemen girl’s tournament that begins Thursday and comes after it finished third in the Ben Lujan tournament at Pojoaque Valley

By Arnie Leshin 

It was an impressive run through the annual Ben Lujan basketball tournament for the St. Michael’s girls.

Now all even at 5-5, the Lady Horsemen settled for third place after giving Bernalillo a tough time before losing 29-24 in the semifinals, a much better effort after losing 45-20  previously at home to the Spartans. 

 

This was followed by a 53-36 trouncing of Santa Rosa in Saturday’s final day at Pojoaque  Valley, one in which the host Elks and Elkettes won both championships, the boys stopping streaking Santa Fe Indian School, 72-61, and the girls having no problem downing Bernalillo, 59-32, and holding its leading scorer, 5-foot-5 junior Juliana Aragon,  to a dozen points, 

 

St. Michael’s head coach Martin Esquibel said it was a pressure defense applied in slowing down Bernalillo, holding Aragon, who is averaging 24.2 and among the top scorers in the state, to 10 points. He said his defense was aggressive and his offense handled the ball well and just kept the Spartans off their game. 

 

“We led early,” Esquibel said, “and just stayed with them, never letting them get up and down the court.”

 

And so after the romp over Santa Rosa, it was the 5-point loss to Bernalillo that kept the Lady Horsemen from going maybe 3-for-3 at the tournament. This one was sparked by the one-two punch of senior Carisa Padilla and freshman Lauryn Pecos. Esquibel said the two were his top scorers and point guard Pecos ran the offense. 

 

Now St. Michael’s is back on its own court as it hosts the annual Lady Horsemen girl’s tournament that tips off Thursday, with the Lady Horsemen opening against district rival Raton. 

 

In the fifth place girl’s game, it was Penasco (8-1) overwhelming Crownpoint, 49-30, to drop the Eagles to 5-6. Seventh place went to Espanola McCurdy in a 40-37 close win over Dulce. The Bobcats improved to 3-4 and Dulce fell to 1-8. 

 

In other girl’s games, defending state 2A champion Pecos (7-0) dominated Cuba, 69-28, while defending state 3A champion Robertson continued its dismal start after losing, 43-26, to Shiprock and is now 2-8 coming off a 54-50 win over Hatch Valley. Capital played at Kirtland Central and took a 59-40 setback.