Lady Jaguars fall to Albuquerque High
The Capital girls basketball team missed out on a golden opportunity Wednesday night.
Facing Albuquerque High with second place in District 5-5A on the line, the Lady Jaguars struggled to knock down shots and had defensive lapses at key moments that the Lady Bulldogs took advantage of them to record a 53-39 win at Bulldog City.
Albuquerque High (8-13 overall) improved to 5-2 in 5-5A play, a game ahead of Albuquerque Manzano and two games ahead of Capital (9-13, 3-4).
The Lady Bulldogs used a 22-7 scoring run to build a 25-11 lead late in the second quarter that the Lady Jaguars never quite overcame. Albuquerque High used a balanced attack of strong interior play of Tiara Pendleton (13 points) and Vanessa Baca (seven) with solid perimeter shooting from Zaria Katesigwa and Jodeci Nious, who both had 10 points on the strength of two 3-pointers.
“Pendleton, she’s been very good for us all year,” Lady Bulldogs head coach Doug Dorame said. “Seventy percent of our scoring comes from out bigs.”
Meanwhile, Capital struggled with scoring as it went 6-for-30 in the first half and needed a five-point spurt thanks to a Miranda Cortez layup and an Ethena Silva 3 to get within 27-16. Rebecca Sorenson exploded in the third quarter for the Lady Jaguars, scoring their first six points to help cut the margin 29-22, and finished with 12 points in the quarter.
“She gives us a lot of spark with her offensive rebounds,” said Capital head coach Darren Casados. “She gets those putbacks and those steals. She’s in there for a reason. As soon as she learns that coach has the confidence in her and she has the confidence in herself, she’s really going to help us.”
The Lady Bulldogs responded with a 9-2 spurt that upped the lead to 38-24 on Marisa Madrid’s free throw with 3:26 left in the quarter.
“We get caught helping too much and not getting back on the shooters,” Casados said of his defense’s struggles. “We try to identify the shooter, but then we stick our hands in there with the bigs and we don’t get back out on the shooters.”
ABQ. SANDIA 77, SANTA FE HIGH 22
The 5-5A leading Lady Matadors scored 22 of the games first 24 points and never looked back in a game in Albuquerque to improve to 7-0.
The Demonettes (8-14, 2-5) continued their scoring struggles, only hitting double digits in the second quarter with 10 points. They trailed 44-12 at the half and 62-18 entering the fourth quarter. Mari Fernandez led Santa Fe High with nine points. Viana Cumber had 28 points to lead Sandia (15-6), and Sapirah Broussard added 20.