Overcoming adversity
Shorthanded Pojoaque Valley Elkettes top Española Valley
WJACONA ith the way Seledon Martinez talked about his Pojoaque Valley Elkettes on Tuesday night, all they were missing were the fife and drum.
The question is not, “Who is hurt or sick for Pojoaque?” It’s “Who isn’t?”
Even Martinez, the Elkettes’ head coach, battled a nagging cough that lingered throughout Pojoaque’s District 2-4A opener against Española Valley in Ben Luján Gymnasium. It was much like how his team battled through its bumps, bruises and sickness to thrive against the Lady Sundevils.
Playing just seven players, Pojoaque eschewed its usual pressing and running ways. Content to play a 2-3 zone and force Española to drive rather than shoot 3-pointers all night long, the Elkettes strolled their way to a 54-45 win that not only gained a small measure of revenge for the Lady Sundevils’ 67-57 win in the opening round of the Class 4A State Tournament in March 2019, but also protected home court in a competitive district.
Pojoaque (12-5 overall) also showed that it could play a different style than what Martinez envisioned — one that relied on beating Española’s pressure, then setting up the half-court offense and working the ball inside.
“We try to look for the best shot we can take and feed it into our bigs,” Elkettes sophomore guard Anissa Herrera said. “We don’t like shooting from the outside, because then we don’t get the rebound. And running, especially with Española was going to be tough to start district.”
Outside of stretches in the second and third quarters, the Elkettes were patient and deliberate on offense, as well as aware on defense to keep a body in front of the Lady Sundevils’
shooters. Española (10-8, 0-1) made just six of 22 shots from the perimeter and were a paltry 16-for-54 overall for the game.
The only time the Lady Sundevils made runs to get back into the game came when they eschewed the 3 and attacked the basket.
“Without giving away what our plan is, because we have to play them again, we were sort of hoping that would happen,” Martinez said. “My girls did enough to win. That’s what we needed tonight.”
That was, in part, because Martinez was relying so heavily on his starters, and he was acutely aware of that. He called a timeout in the second quarter mainly to give the Elkettes a breather, and rarely tried to press the smaller, quicker Lady Sundevils. Still, the bench had to come in and give starting forward Ashten Martinez a couple of minutes to work out a leg cramp before she went back on the court.
One player who didn’t see the bench at all was guard Michaela Martinez. Needing her to help break the press, the 5-foot-8 senior did that for the most part and led the team with 17 points. She was also rock-solid at the free-throw line, going 8-for-9 overall and hitting all three tries in the final quarter.
In fact, the Elkettes were a perfect 7-for-7 at the line in the fourth and scored on six of their first seven possessions to turn an uncomfortable 37-32 lead into a 50-38 margin on Hennessei Calabaza’s layup off a Tonni Aquino pass on the baseline with 3:21 left.
Perhaps the signature moment of the night came when Pojoaque answered a Destiny Valdez 3-pointer for the Lady Sundevils with the perfect press-breaking sequence. All five players touched the ball, with Ashten Martinez finding Aquino open in the low block for a layup with 1:46 left that upped the margin to 52-42.
“We run what we call a ’30-second drill,’ where girls have to make five shots — each one of them has to score — and they got 30-seconds to do it,” coach Martinez said. “They’re getting closer and closer to where all 10 of the girls can do that. Just look at the color of the jersey and not anything else.”
Española showed it could do that, as well, but not as consistently. After building a 16-15 lead midway through the second quarter by attacking the rim to either dish to the an open player on the weak side or a layup, the Lady Sundevils stopped attacking and started firing away from the perimeter.
They went 6 minutes, 24 seconds without a point, and trailed 30-17 when Jasmine Baca hit a free throw with 5:02 remaining in the third.
Española then remembered what worked and went back to it, and a 14-3 run ensued to cut the margin 33-30 on a Valdez free throw with 1:07 left in the quarter.
“We get it down to two or three, and then we get out of what we’re doing,” Lady Sundevils head coach Joe Estrada said. “It’s a simple pass-and-cut offense, and it starts working for us. Then, we decide to not do it anymore. Then we force stuff, get up in the air and make dumb passes and give all our hard work away. Because we lack discipline. And that is a huge, huge issue.”
It was discipline that Pojoaque had in droves, and it made all those aches and pains worthwhile for one night.