Sandia Prep tandem wears down SFIS for title
Coach Abeyta says last 2 minutes of third quarter swung momentum
ALBUQUERQUE — J.P. Rael doesn’t believe in the brake pedal, at least not on the basketball court.
The head girls basketball coach at Albuquerque Sandia Prep preaches a style that keeps the Lady Sundevils always in the attack mode, no matter the score or the time.
Of course, having perhaps the best guard tandem in Class 4A helps give that attack mode its edge. Seniors Maddie Trainor and Mari Yepa combined for 61 points and scored 25 of Sandia Prep’s last 28 points to wear out the Santa Fe Indian School Lady Braves in a 72-50 win to win the District 5-4A Tournament championship on Saturday night.
Trainor scored a game-high 38 points, while Yepa rebounded from a five-point first half, in which she sat with three fouls, to finish with 23 points.
“I am absolutely blessed to have what I think are the two best guards in 4-A,” Rael said. “Hannah Valencia from Hope [Christian] is up there, too, but I’ll put those two up against anybody.”
Sandia Prep athletic director Pete McFarlane believes it is the first district tournament title in the program’s history, but he knows it is the first time the Lady Sundevils swept the regular-season and tournament crowns.
It took three quarters before the Lady Braves finally succumbed to Sandia Prep’s intensity and pace, and they were outscored 23-8 in the fourth quarter. However, SFIS head coach Christie Abeyta felt the last 2 minutes of the third quarter proved crucial to swinging momentum the Lady Sundevils’ way.
The Lady Braves (16-10) turned the ball over three times in a 1:47 stretch that helped Sandia Prep (17-9) turn a 39-34 lead into a 49-37 margin on Yepa’s steal
and layup with 46 seconds left in the quarter. The tempo was in high gear during that spurt, but SFIS only managed two shots in that span.
A pair of travelling violations by Araelia Haskie halted a pair of breakaway opportunities at midcourt.
Her second travel led to a 15-footer runner by Trainor with 53 seconds left for a 47-37 lead, then came Yepa’s contribution for a 12-point lead.
“That was really a game changer,” Abeyta said. “Those three turnovers, and Sandia capitalizing on them.”
Even though the Lady Braves cut the deficit to 49-42, thanks to a Tyra Yepa 3-pointer and a Frankie Chavez layup, Abeyta felt the past two nights took something out of her team. In Friday night’s 57-51 win over Bernalillo in the 5-4A semifinal, the Lady Braves pressed to overcome a 15-point deficit and needed a 21-6 run to cap the comeback.
Abeyta deliberately didn’t press to save her team’s legs, but the Lady Sundevils were only content to race up and down the court.
“We had to fight back,” Abeyta said about the Bernalillo game. “We had to go into a fullcourt press, we had to change our slow-down offense to a run-andgun one. That just wore our girls out, and I anticipated it. That’s why we didn’t press.”
SFIS was within 56-48 after Chavez’s shot in the paint with 5:16 left, but the team scored just two points the rest of the way. The Lady Braves missed 10 of their last 11 shots and turned the ball over four times as they desperately tried to cut into the lead with 3s, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, Sandia Prep kept pushing the pace and outscored SFIS 16-2 the rest of the night.
“You see it at the end of the game: we can’t hold the ball,” Rael said.
“We have to attack the rim. Our girls don’t know how to stall, whether it’s with a fivepoint lead or a 20-point lead. Those girls are always looking at the rim, and that’s what we do. I don’t want to change that.”