No. 3 Roswell beats No. 6 Los Alamos

ALBUQUERQUE — The sixth-seeded Los Alamos girls basketball team went into a Class AAAAA quarterfinal at The Pit on Tuesday expecting a fierce, physical game.

The Lady Hilltoppers, though, never expected to be held to just one point in the second quarter en route to a 53-41 loss to No. 3 Roswell.

“I think they executed and just showed the poise and the experience that Roswell has,” Los Alamos coach Nestor Trujillo said. “That’s one of the top programs in AAAAA. And I think they were a little more poised than we were.”

Ashlynn Trujillo led Los Alamos (24-6) with 17 points, while Amber Logan and Makaela Jones each added nine in a losing cause. Jones also fouled out in the fourth quarter.

“Hats off to Roswell, they really played well,” coach Trujillo said. “They took us out of our game plan. We had to make some adjustments at halftime. We weren’t able to bridge that gap as well as we’d like.”

It was a bitter end for first-year coach Trujillo and his players, particularly for Logan, the lone senior on the roster.

“I think we’re on the right path,” coach Trujillo said. “This is a first-year program with all of us together. We’re definitely going to miss Logan. We’re trying to play our butts off for her. But in the end, we just fell short. Someone has to win and lose. This is the ugly part of it.”

Roswell (24-4) came out sluggish, falling behind 10-5 at the end of the first quarter. Then the Coyotes caught fire, outscoring the Hilltoppers 16-1 in the second quarter.

Los Alamos never got closer than 10 points in the second half as Roswell executed its game plan almost perfectly.

“Well, we knew number 11 [Logan] was a really good shooter, so we wanted to make sure we were aware of her the full time in the halfcourt,” Coyotes coach Joe Carpenter said. “Then the coach’s daughter, Trujillo, we were concerned with her penetration. Everyone else, we were going to treat them not that they’re not good players, but we were going to risk leaving them open.”

The Hilltoppers never let the game get out of hand even if they could never trim the deficit under double digits.

“We kept fighting, we didn’t let up on them,” Logan said. “I couldn’t be prouder of how we played the second half.”

Logan still held her head high after the game.

“This last year definitely has been the best, most rewarding, most fun season I’ve ever participated in,” Logan said.