Basketball Girls Re-Caps
Girls 5A
La Cueva senior Nikki Ingram’s final high school basketball game had this stat line: 17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and one head-to-head encounter with Cibola sophomore Amber Battle.
Ingram came out on the short end of her late game collision with Battle, but Ingram and the Bears emerged from The Pit with their second straight Class 5A championship.
Led by Ingram, the Bears took control of the fourth quarter to beat Cibola 51-43.
After being shut out of championship Saturday for many years, the La Cueva girls are getting the hang of March Madness. They beat Eldorado in the 2007-08 title game and had several of the starters from that squad on the floor in the decisive fourth quarter against Cibola.
``This was a special bunch,’’ said La Cueva coach Greg Berger. ``They’re veterans and they’ve been down the (Pit) ramp many times. With our experience, I felt it was our game to lose.’’
For three quarters, it looked like 11th seeded Cibola might spring the upset of the 5th seeded Bears.
The Cougars, with Battle slipping around and through La Cueva’s defense, jumped out to an early lead before La Cueva got its offense untracked. Cibola led 20-19 at halftime and still led 33-32 going into the fourth quarter.
But Battle, who finished with 23 points and 7 rebounds, couldn’t get enough help from her teammates. Battle, the daughter of former University of New Mexico guard Bruce Battle, had 8 of the Cougars’ 11 field goals in the game. She hit 8 of 14 shots, but the rest of the Cibola team hit just 3 of 24 shots.
Still, the Cougars stayed in the game through the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. Battle scored her team’s first six points in the period and La Cueva led just 43-39 with just over three minutes left.
The Bears steadily built their lead from there, with Ingram hitting five free throws in the final minute.
It was during that stretch that Ingram and Battle came to a meeting of the minds so to speak. The momentary contact left Ingram with a slight gash next to her right eye. After a timeout during which La Cueva trainer Jeff Archuleta worked on the cut, Ingram returned to hit a free throw that gave the Bears a 47-41 lead with 38 seconds left.
Cibola, making its second appearance in a championship game and first since 1990, finished the 2008-09 season with a record of 19-13.
La Cueva was 22-10.
Girls 4A
St. Pius coach Phil Griego must sleep very soundly at night. Heaven knows he’s a man in constant motion on a basketball court.
Griego comes equipped with restless feet, a constantly in use vocabulary and a penchant for demanding perfection on the court.
Griego also has one of the state’s strongest girls basketball programs.
The Sartans captured their second straight 4A state championship and third in the last four years under Griego with a 43-32 win over Roswell High.
The Sartans overwhelmed the Lady Coyotes with tenacious defense and closed their championship season with a 23-game winning streak and overall 28-1 record. Their only loss was to Class 5A Eldorado in mid-December.
Roswell, playing in a girls basketball state championship game for the first time in history, finished with a 24-7 record.
The Lady Coyotes managed a 2-2 tie in the game’s opening minute, but never could seize the lead or momentum from a Pius squad that controlled the tempo from opening tip to final buzzer with its ball-hawking defense, the point guard play of Alexandria Membreno and and inside presence of seniors Jordan Unverzagt and Caitlin Boal.
Membreno scored 13 points and had 14 rebounds and 4 assists. Unverzagt and Boal defended inside.
Chantele Riddle was Roswell’s most effective offensive scorer. She hit 7 of 10 shots and finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds.
Besides the back-to-back titles, St. Pius also won the title in 2006.
Roswell, the No 2 seed in the tournament behind St. Pius, got to the finals with wins over Volcano Vista (69-48); Belen (46-38) and Moriarty (38-36).
St. Pius beat Silver City (56-37) in a first round game, then beat Del Norte (41-27) and Kirtland Central (58-49) in the semifinals.
Girls 3A
Poise can be an elusive thing when perfection is on the line.
Not so for the Pojoaque Elkettes.
The northern New Mexico school posted its second undefeated season in school history with a 44-38 win over Portales in the Class 3A girls championship game.
Led by 6-foot-2 senior center Jacqueline Bartleson, the Elkettes won their second straight state title and set a school record for wins with a 31-0 record. The Elkettes also went undefeated in 1998, when they captured the school’s first girls basketball championship with a 28-0 record.
Pojoaque will carry a 35-game winning streak into the 2009-10 season.
A perfect record, a No. 1 seeding in the State Tournament and the pressure of a title game can put considerable pressure on a team of teen-agers. So what’s Pojoaque’s formula for avoiding a meltdown?
``We focus on the next battle at hand,’’ said Pojoaque coach Lanse Carter, who has made composure as much a part of his game plan as Xs and Os.
Carter said the Elkettes rarely discussed their winning streak during the season.
``Once in a while we did at practice, but we tell them it’s just a number,’’
Defending their title didn’t come easy for the Elkettes against a Portales program that not so long ago was winning state titles with impressive regularity.
The Lady Rams, who won four 3A titles from 2001 to 2006 under coach Brenda Gomez, finished their runner-up year with a 22-11 record.
And they went down battling to the end against a Pojoaque team that scored runaway wins over many of its opponents during the regular season and State Tournament.
Portales scored just four points in the third quarter to fall behind 34-20 entering the fourth quarter. But the Lady Rams used a 14-0 run, including three straight 3-pointers, to close the gap to 41-35. The final 3-pointer was by senior guard Tayler Lucero with 2:00 left.
Dionne Montoya’s short jumper got Pojoaque’s offense going again and halted the Portales rally. And with Carter urging his Elkettes with a steady stream of ``composure, composure, composure,’’ the Pojoaque girls got the message and patiently worked their offense for points that kept them safely in front down the stretch.
Bartleson led Pojoaque with 15 points, 9 rebounds and numerous blocks. Janelle Roybal scored 10 points.
Senior Tara Johnson led Portales with 11 points.
No. 1 seed Pojoaque’s run to the title included earlier wins over Wingate (61-37); Socorro (49-30) and St. Michael’s (44-23). Portales, the No. 2 seed, reached the finals with wins over Hatch Valley (60-17); West Las Vegas (52-30) and Robertson (56-48).
Girls 2A
Like sister, like sister.
On a drizzly late winter afternoon in Albuquerque, Rainy and Nicole Crisp celebrated a rare sibling moment--a state basketball championship.
While Rainy the coach hollered instructions with a smile from the bench, her 17-year-old sister Nicole scored 23 points and pulled down 14 rebounds as the Lady Eagles outlasted a gutty effort by Lordsburg for a 72-54 win in the girls championship game of Class 2A.
The win gave Navajo Prep its fifth state championship since 1995 and sixth overall for the northwest New Mexico school that in the past has also been known as Navajo Academy and Navajo Prep.
The Lady Eagles, the state runners-up in 2008, finished with a 21-8 record. The No. 2 seeded champs defeated Rehoboth (48-38); No. 7 seed Tularosa (54-27) and No. 6 Navajo Pine (67-60) en route to the finals.
Lordsburg, making its first appearance in a girls basketball championship game, never led in the game after falling behind 10-0 in the game’s first two minutes. But the Mavericks made a sterling second half rally that got them within 43-38 with 2:40 left in the third quarter.
The 10-3 run that got the Mavericks that close was led by senior Julia Talavera and junior Madonna Bustillos Talavera scored a pair of baskets and Bustillos had a layup and a 3-pointer in that stretch.
But Navajo Prep regained the momentum for good by scoring 11 straight points over the final two minutes of the third quarter and opening minute of the fourth quarter. That scoring streak included a pair of layups by senior Dalva Benny and a 3-pointer by Marqia Begaye.
Lordsburg finished the season with a 20-7 record. The Mavericks were led by Kelsey Worthan with 9 points. Alysha Marquez, Talavera and Bustillos each scored 8 points. No. 5 seed Lordsburg got to its first title game with wins over Jemez Valley (86-38); No. 4 Mora (70-66) and top-seeded Texico (63-54).
For the Crisp family, playing in The Pit in March has become a tradition. Rainy Crisp played at Navajo Prep from 1994 to 1998 and was a key player in the school’s run of three state titles in that stretch. Asked which is more memorable, winning a state title as a player or as a coach, Rainy replied: ``They’re both amazing feelings. Winning it as a player and holding up the trophy is great, but so is watching your girls make history.’’
Despite the loss, it was huge year for girls basketball in Lordsburg. ``We did the best we’ve ever done,’’ said coach Rodney Plowman.
Girls 1A
When you grow up in Cimarron and you’re last name is Coca, it’s a given that you’ll end up wearing the red and white uniform on an athletic field.
Meet Whitley Coca, the latest member of the Coca clan of gym rats.
The tenacious senior and versatile playmaker scored 29 points in her final high school game to rally the Rams to a 58-53 win over Des Moines in the championship game.
``It’s kind of expected. It’s a good thing,’’ said Coca of her family’s deep roots in Cimarron athletics. ``My whole family has played sports and all of them have been pretty good.’’
Coca’s dad, Billy, played for Cimarron, as have countless cousins and uncles. Whitley made them all proud on championship Saturday.
It was Whitley’s four free throws in the game’s final 20 seconds that clinched Cimarron’s third state championship in the last four years. The Cimarron girls posted back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007 and now own four titles.
Des Moines and Cimarron met five times in the 2008-09 season and Cimarron won all five games. But the Lady Demons led through much of the championship game before the Rams took the lead for good late in the fourth quarter.
With both school located in New Mexico’s northeast corner, both had a long trip to Albuquerque. Cimarron senior Brooke Knox said the Rams expected the district rivals to meet again.
`We all had a feeling after the district championship that we’d meet them here. But it was a different atmosphere in The Pit.’’
A free throw by Des Moines junior Amaris Newkirk with 1:53 left gave the Lady Demons a 53-50 lead. Coca then hit a short jumper in the lane. Des Moines missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw situation and after a steal by Cimarron’s Lacy Harris, Knox hit two free throws with 35 seconds left to put the Rams up 54-53.
Des Moines junior Myra Newkirk missed two free throws with 26.3 seconds left. The Rams made sure the ball was in Coca’s hands in the final minute and forced to foul, Des Moines sent the Cimarron leader to the line twice. She hit all four free throws.
``We had our chances,’’ said Des Moines coach Lyndel Bonds. ``We got to the free throw line and couldn’t convert. We had some crucial turnovers. Sometimes the ball bounces the other way.’’
Amaris Newkirk led the Lady Demons with 16 points. Freshman Cassidy Doherty scored 11, including a trio of 3-pointers, and Myra Newkirk had 10 points.
Des Moines, which won four state championships from 1999 to 2004, finished the season with a record of 20-9.
Cimarron finished 26-1 under first-year head coach Patricia LeDoux. LeDoux took over the head coaching job after a long run as an assistant at the school.