Surprises aplenty as Dulce, Peñasco left standing
JACONA — The third annual Northern Rio Grande girls basketball tournament has done anything but go according to script.
With the first two rounds in the books, the top seed has been dispatched to the consolation finals, the No. 3 seed can do no better than fifth place and the defending champ is left playing for third.
What’s left is a Saturday championship between the team that nearly finished the deal last year — Peñasco — and the team that has climbed into the semifinals the two previous years before falling short (Dulce).
“Maybe not the game someone expected, but we’ll be here,” said Peñasco head coach Gilbert Mascareñas after his team’s win in Friday’s semifinals.
The championship tips off at about 6 p.m., with all other games staggered earlier throughout the day.
PEÑASCO 51, MORA 36
Been there, almost done that. It was this time almost exactly a year ago that the Lady Panthers bounced into the Northern Rio Grande Tournament’s championship game as an undefeated, top-ranked club that was garnering respect from everyone paying attention.
That’s when Mora came along and provided the blueprint for beating them, rolling to an easy win in the NRG finals to send Peñasco tumbling to a 10-10 finish in their final 20 games. It all ended with a disappointing first-round exit from the state tournament.
On Friday afternoon inside Pojoaque Valley’s Ben Luján Gymnasium, the Lady Panthers were back for more with an NRG semifinal rematch with Mora. This time it was all them despite a few quirky incidents that proved this year’s approach is vastly different from the one seen last time around.
“I think last year we were, I don’t know, not really ready to handle all this,” said Mascareñas. “We take things more in stride, I guess. We see things a little differently.”
To wit: The 51-36 victory included a technical foul on guard Estrella Gonzalez for wearing earrings, a move that was followed by the team getting locked out of its own dressing room. Both things could have proven to be a major distraction but somehow weren’t.
“Things like that are no big deal anymore,” Mascareñas said. “I think last year things like that would have bothered us because all we were focused on was winning. We weren’t playing a tough schedule until we got [to the NRG] and this year, I don’t know, things are different.”
Peñasco got 20 points from Carly Gonzales and 11 from Adriana Tafoya, using a late surge that began in the third quarter following the Gonzalez technical that saw Mora miss both free throws. Moments before, the Rangerettes had crawled to within 30-26 and were threatening for more before the Peñasco defense clamped down and ignited a 10-4 run that helped put it away.
The shorthanded Lady Panthers dressed just nine players, getting nine points apiece from guard Alaska Lopez and co-captain Bianca Contreras. Lopez had seven of her points in the fourth quarter as the lead ballooned to as many as 18.
Now 11-3 on the season, Peñasco appears to be on a different trajectory than the one that eventually doomed last year’s team. Mascarenas said the proof is in the approach.
“We spent all summer going to camps and playing against the best, the tallest teams we could find,” he said. “We didn’t win all the time but we found out that you don’t have to win to get better. I don’t think you get better by playing soft teams. You get the wins, but you don’t get tougher and, right now, I think that’s exactly what we are.”
Tipoff for the championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday with the consolation game between Mora and McCurdy set for 3 p.m.
The tournament’s top seed went down in a heap after cutting a double-digit deficit to a single possession in the fourth quarter — and then completely unraveling after its top player fouled out.
Karla Santos picked up her fifth foul with 5:42 left in the final period, marking the start of the end for the Lady Bobcats (10-4). It came just 21 seconds after she buried her second of consecutive 3-pointers to get her team within 44-41. Up to that point it was a steep uphill climb after starting the game without scoring for the first four-plus minutes, then enduring a six-minute span between the end of the second quarter and most of the third without touching the net.
“We’ve been consistent all year but, yeah, it’s hard to explain how we just disappear like that in a game like this,” said McCurdy head coach Ronald Sanchez.
Alyssa Edmonds had 16 points to lead the Lady Bobcats. Santos had 11 before taking a seat.
Once she got her fifth, Dulce’s three-point lead grew to 54-41 after a 10-0 run over a sixminute span. McCurdy had nine straight empty possessions, turning it over four times and going 0-for-6 from the field and 0-for-1 from the line. Afteward, Sanchez said he hadn’t realized Santos was playing with four fouls when she was whistled for going over the back of a Dulce rebounder in the paint.
Minus the threat, the Lady Hawks’ Brannon Vigil scored immediately after Santos went to the bench to open a 46-41 lead. She scored again just moments later when she grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back to push the margin to seven.
McCurdy never recovered. Minus their leading offensive threat, no one else was able to keep the momentum going. It wasn’t until Angie Arroyo scored in the post with 20 seconds remaining that the Bobcats’ final drought finally ended.
Dulce (9-4) had three players in double figures, led by Brooke Vigil’s 17.
With leading scorer Cassie Muller sitting out with a knee injury, the third-seeded Lady Panthers (7-3) bounced back from Thursday’s opening round loss behind 15 points from Trinity Herrera and 11 from Lexi Gonzales.
They held Questa to single digits in each of the first three quarters, taking a commanding 44-21 lead into the final period.
Brittney Martinez added 10 points for Pecos while Larissa Passino had a team-high nine for Questa (5-9).
The Lady Panthers will meet Escalante for fifth place at noon.
Tanisha Torrez, Sarah Hurd and Valerie Valdez combined for 40 points, leading the Lady Lobos to an easy win over the Lady Trojans in a rematch of the inaugural NRG girls’ championship game from two years ago.
Torre finished with 15 points while Hurd had 14 and Valdez 11. Adrian Griego had 17 points to lead Mesa Vista (2-11) while Maryssa Martin had 14.
The Lady Trojans will face Questa for seventh place at 9 a.m. Saturday.