Lady Jaguars keep season alive with win against Demonettes
Martinez’s steal keeps Capital’s season alive in district tournament opener against SFHS
The Capital guards kept getting less experienced by the moment Tuesday night, and it was not by design. Fortunately, there was a senior leader to shine the light.
In the fourth installment of the Capital-Santa Fe High girls basketball series — which was perhaps more thrilling than their boys counterpart as far as drama, but more on that later — the Lady Jaguars had to deal with a sudden rash of injuries to their backcourt in the opening round of the District 5-5A Tournament in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium.
Capital was without starter Belen Gomez (ankle injury) and key reserve Darian Casados (left leg injury) for the crucial final moments, and seldom-used senior Samantha Rodriguez was trying to help the Lady Jaguars hold off Santa Fe High’s furious comeback.
At least Alyssa Martinez was there to keep order when chaos threatened to end Capital’s season.
Her steal and layup with 2:10 left sparked a closing 6-0 run that alleviated the Demonettes threat for a 53-44 win and kept Capital’s season alive. The Lady Jaguars (9-18) head to Albuquerque High to take on the Lady Bulldogs in a district quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Capital head coach Darren Casados admitted that he didn’t know if his injured players would be available, but all that matters is that somebody will have to answer the call.
“I just told the girls, ‘There are 14 of you for a reason, so you better be ready to go [Wednesday],’ ” Casados said. “Those girls who came off the bench, they gave us a spark here and there and they had a few turnovers, but they stuck it out.”
Martinez wasn’t part of that group, having been a starter for most of the season. She showed why when she picked off a pass to midcourt with Santa Fe High trying to cut into a 48-44 deficit that was once a 15-point gap, and converted it into a breakaway layup that was back-breaking for the host team.
“I feel like, a lot of time, I try to anticipate when the pass is in the air,” Martinez said. “For me, it’s just
being patient and I know my time will come. I was feeling it and it was just momentum.”
The momentum was badly needed because Santa Fe High tenaciously kept finding a way back into the game. It didn’t help that the Demonettes made just three of their first 24 shots in the game and found themselves down 22-8 early in the second quarter. When Santa Fe High head coach Nate Morris heard the shooting stat, he was aghast at the bitterly cold shooting — which matched the subfreezing temperature outside.
“I didn’t think it was that bad,” Morris said. “They just weren’t falling and I can’t explain it.”
That inability to make shots seem to strike at the most inopportune times. They made just 15 of 56 attempts and never quite got into a comfortable rhythm, despite Capital committing 22 turnovers to help them.
The Lady Jaguars’ duo of Ethena Silva and Rebecca Sorensen combined for 24 points, but the rest of the team made contributions both large and small. Darian Casados had five first-quarter points before leaving the game in the second quarter after Demonettes freshman post Zuriel Vigil fell on her.
“I was joking with her afterward that I fall on her harder than that,” said coach Casados, who doubles as her dad.
Senior guard Nikki Cole had six points, and her drive from the right wing 11 seconds into the fourth gave Capital a 42-34 lead. She also hit a free throw with 1:03 left to make it 51-44.
“I feel like our guards really stepped up tonight,” Martinez said. “We all had confidence in each other, we stayed together and we had that ‘next play’ mentality.”
Santa Fe High (11-16), which trailed by as much as 32-17 after Martinez’s baseline drive just 97 seconds into the third quarter, didn’t go quietly, as it relied on strong defense and Capital’s miscues to inch its way back into contention. The lead dwindled to 38-31 on Olivia Montoya’s drive into the paint with 1:29 left in the quarter, and her banked 3-pointer at the buzzer cut it to 40-34 entering the fourth.
Capital also struggled to knock down shots, missing 14 of 19 during a stretch in the second half as its lead was down to 45-40 on Montoya’s scoop layup with 4:01 left. When Angie Perez scored on a drive from the left wing with 3:35 left, the margin was down to 47-44.
Then came a key turnover against Capital’s pressure, which Morris felt the Demonettes had handled for much of the game.
“We had maybe three or four turnovers against it all game, but that was an untimely one,” Morris said.
It was timely by Capital’s standards. That it came from a savvy veteran was all the better.