Española girls come together as team in final two minutes for win against Aztec.

ESPAÑOLA — For 30 minutes, each Española Valley Lady Sundevil tried to make things happen on her own.

For the last two minutes, they finally decided to work together.

The result was a 3-pointer from Leah DeAguero that lifted third-seeded Española to a 35-30 win over No. 14 Aztec in the opening round of the girls Class 6A State Tournament in Edward Medina Gymnasium. The Lady Sundevils (20-6) will head to The Pit in Albuquerque on Tuesday for a 5A quarterfinal against an all-too familiar rival: the No. 11 Gallup Lady Bengals, who have beaten Española the last three Marchs in The Pit.

There almost wasn’t a fourth meeting, as the Lady Tigers (15-14) used an air-tight 2-3 zone to frustrate the Lady Sundevils for most of the night. In an offense that relies on senior post Alexis Lovato getting her points, Española tried too hard to get the 5-foot-10 Lovato the ball. It led to a stagnant offense in which the Lady Sundevils seemed content to settle for outside shots or force shots that weren’t there.

That is, until they started working together.

“We weren’t doing our offense,” Española head coach Cindy Roybal said. “We were just passing it [around], a little penetration, and no picks. If you heard me, I was screaming, ‘Pick!’ the whole time. So, maybe it was good that they listened to me.”

The Lady Sundevils spent almost a minute working the ball around the perimeter and occasionally into the paint before kicking it back out. There were opportunities for shots, but Kaylee Chavez and DeAguero passed them up until the Aztec zone left DeAguero open near the top of the key, and she drained a 22-footer to break a 30-all tie with 50 seconds left in the game. She added a pair of free throws with 3.3 seconds left to seal the win and finish with 16 points that included four 3s.

“We were just trying to get the best possible look that we could,” DeAguero said. “Yeah, some of them were good, but we were like, ‘No, we can do better.’ It was just discipline and patience at that point.”

Before that, it was frustration and a little divine intervention. The Lady Sundevils were just 4-for-14 in the first half as Aztec dictated the slow-down tempo that it favored. In one eight-minute stretch from midway through the first into the midpoint of the second quarter, the teams combined for just four points as both teams struggled to get their offenses going.

The Lady Sundevils seemed to get momentum going their way with a short 5-0 run to open the third quarter, capped by Annalynn Martinez’s 3 from the right wing for a 17-11 lead. Then Makayla McCaskill got in the way. She drained consecutive 3s to tie the score at 17 and start a 13-2 run that gave the Lady Tigers a 24-19 lead on Kamrynn Phelps’ putback with 1:13 left in the third.

“You talk about luck, they threw it from Aztec with their eyes closed and banked it in twice in a row!” Roybal said.

Desperately in need of a little luck of their own, DeAguero looked to the heavens for one. Her bank shot from 22 feet with 5 seconds left in the quarter got Española within 24-22 heading into the fourth quarter.

“That was a hallelujah,” DeAguero said. “That was all Jesus right there. That was definitely desperation. We were looking for something to go in.”

That was just the Big Man’s gentle reminder to the Lady Sundevils that everybody needs a little help — be it from above or with each other.