La Cueva routs SFHS
On Monday morning, the Santa Fe High Demonettes had a dream of competing for a District 2-6A title.
By the time Saturday night rolled around, the dream took a one-way ticket out of Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium, hitching a ride with the Albuquerque La Cueva Lady Bears. It wasn’t so much that La Cueva was head-and-shoulders better than Santa Fe High — which it was in a dominant 72-39 District 2-6A win over the host team — but rather how different the Demonettes looked compared to Monday.
Sitting on the home bench in her warm-up suit was junior point guard Taylor Salazar, her season finished after tearing her right ACL in Tuesday’s 58-53 loss to Albuquerque Sandia to open district play.
Missing from the gym was senior guard Kaya Suina, who had a religious commitment, and sophomore Serina Aguilar, who was sick.
Sitting on the bench to start the game was junior forward Elizabeth “Little” Martinez because of a team rule violation.
Gamely playing through illness was senior forward Adonica Baca-Martinez, who finished with 18 points as she tried to carry her team and the weight of the world on her back. Meanwhile, a group of mostly underclassmen and an eighth-grader (Alexis Espinosa) tried to fill roles that belonged to other players not more than five days ago.
When Santa Fe High played the Lady Matadors, its starting lineup consistent of two seniors, two juniors and a
sophomore. Against the Lady Bears, only Baca-Martinez and sophomore Amber Lucero were the only ones to repeat their starting roles, as a junior and two sophomores joined them.
“It’s been trials and tribulations all year,” Demonettes head coach Cindy Roybal said. “I don’t know how else to put it, but it’s been challenging for them and challenging for me. If it weren’t for bad luck right now, we wouldn’t have any luck.”
What made the week especially frustrating was the flicker of hope Santa Fe High had in preparation for 2-6A play. The Demonettes had wins in six of their seven games leading up to the Sandia game and were 9-7 after an 0-3 start. Their understanding of Roybal’s system had improved significantly from late November, and they even ran her vaunted matchup zone defense to her satisfaction.
Santa Fe High was even up 19-8 on the Lady Matadors when Salazar went down early in the second quarter. She had 11 points by that point, and had three 3-pointers by that point. With the second-leading scorer and the best ball handler gone, the Demonettes struggled to find a second and third scoring option behind Baca-Martinez.
Against La Cueva, only one Demonette had more than four points besides Baca-Martinez — “Little” Martinez had eight points coming off the bench and showed plenty of hustle. She had six rebounds to go with three steals, and she even nailed a bank 3 with 2:25 left in the game to cut the Lady Bears’ lead to 67-33.
Baca-Martinez and Roybal echoed similar thoughts about the state of the program — some players simply aren’t putting in the time to improve their overall skills.
“I’ve never been at a place where kids don’t stay after practice or try to open the gym and try to get better,” Roybal said. “I’ve never been in a situation like this. Here, they look at the clock, so they can see when to leave.”
“It’s been a matter all season that all people need to put in more work, and they haven’t,” Baca-Martinez said. “Really, it’s just about the mentality. Taylor and I play all year-round. It’s kinda frustrating to have girls who are just satisfied to be on the varsity team.”
An example of an area of weakness that hasn’t gotten better is ball-handling, as La Cueva forced 33 turnovers on the night. Twelve came in the opening quarter, as the Lady Bears rode the hot hand of sophomore guard Kaya Ingram (10 points) and fashioned a 21-9 lead.
It was as close as the Demonettes got, as Ingram riddled their defense with five 3s and finished with 27 points.
The younger players seemed overwhelmed by the Lady Bears’ physicality and speed, which to some making weak passes that were easily picked off. Other times, they allowed the Lady Bears’ fullcourt press to speed them up to the point of playing out of control.
“It’s back to trying to develop a defense that best suits what we have left, and the offense that best suits us,” Roybal said. “A lot of it revolves around Adonica, and then you’re going to have your double- and triple-teams on her like [Saturday]. And she’s got to learn patience.
“And, really, we got to slow the game down. Until we learn how to slow it down, we are going get beat pretty bad.”
Even with Suina and Aguilar coming back next week, Santa Fe High is in the midst of rediscovering a new identity. The problem is the timing: there is four weeks left in the regular season. Then comes the district tournament. If the Demonettes expect to even sniff the state tournament, a change is going to have come fast.
For Roybal, who won two state titles at Santa Fe Indian School at the start of this decade and led Española Valley to three straight state semifinal appearances before taking on the title as head coach at Santa Fe High, she never expected a season like this.
“You would think the twilight of my career would be enjoyable,” Roybal said. “Right now, it’s like the beginning. It’s bad.”