Another tough loss for host St. Michael’s

Another quality effort became another close loss for the St. Michael’s girls basketball team in last night’s first round of the annual Lady Horsemen Christmas tournament.

Its overall record is deceiving, as obvious by the 46-45 setback to Penasco, which entered this tournament at 5-2, the best record in the field. But like some of their other tight games, the Lady Horsemen went back-and-fourth with the Panthers until with six seconds remaining, sophomore guard Darnell Gonzales broke the tie game with a free throw.

“We then got away an outside shot,” said first-year head coach Sonya Ruiz,” but it didn’t go in, otherwise we’d be in the semis today.”

St. Michael’s received a team-high 16 points from 5-foot-9 junior Carmen Pacheco and 5-7 junior point guard Lauryn Pecos added nine points to go with a pair of assists and five steals.

The Lady Horsemen, now 3-7 and with four-straight setbacks, will play a consolation game today against Albuquerque Sandia Prep, which is 1-7 after Tuesday’s 42-18 loss to Espanola Valley. Ruiz’ girls have gone through droughts in past games, but they hung in there against Penasco, the No. 4-ranked team in 2A.

The home side was up 9-7 after one quarter and trailed 29-22 at halftime. It was 36-all after three quarters and after deadlocked at 45-45 when Gonzales dropped in the freebie, and despite having gotten off a shot, time ran out on another game effort by St. Michael’s. Junior guard Lilli Rodriguez did not score, but did hand out six assists and come away with five steals.

Lady Horsemen 5-8 senior post Claire Patten is out for the remainder of the season after she injured a knee in the defeat against visiting Bernalillo last week.

In the other semifinals today, Los Alamos (6-4) takes on Taos (5-5), which romped over Pecos, 61-30, while the Hilltoppers turned back Albuquerque Hope Christian, 42-35. That game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., with Penasco-Espanola to follow.

The Pecos Panthers dropped to 3-5 and the Hope Huskies to 2-5.

“We did draw a good crowd,” said Ruiz, “and that was good.”