Los Lunas slips by Sundevils
Goddard turns away its rival, top-seeded Roswell
Los Lunas and Goddard won close semifinals in the Pit on Thursday to earn spots in the Class 5A girls basketball tournament championship game.
The Tigers and Rockets will meet at 7:30 p.m. today in the Pit.
Los Lunas won the 5A title in 2015. Goddard will be playing in its first championship game. No. 2 LOS LUNAS 55, No. 3 ESPAÑOLA
VALLEY 54: Mica Jenrette’s putback with 7 seconds left helped the Tigers (23-7) recover from blowing a 19-point halftime lead.
Alexis Lovato scored 31 points — 20 in the second half — to fuel the Sundevils (21-7) comeback.
“It took us too long to match up properly on her,” Los Lunas coach Marty Zeller said. “Give Española Valley all the credit in the world for coming back like they did. They got the ball in the middle of the floor at will, either by penetration or by the pass, and we were at their mercy.”
But on a controversial play under the basket with 22 seconds left, Lovato fell as she received an inbounds pass and instead of a foul call, she was called for going out of bounds.
“It’s sad when you fight that hard and come from 22 (actually 19) down and you feel like you were robbed,” Española coach Cindy Roybal said. “It’s hard to take. But anyone who thought we could win it is full of it, and we were right there.”
Jenrette finished with 13 points and Hayley Torres added 11 for Los Lunas.
“It was chaotic,” Jenrette said of the second half. “We didn’t have the right defense. We weren’t communicating like we usually do. The crowd got into it.” — Glen Rosales No. 5 GODDARD 54, No. 1 ROSWELL
52: The Rockets (21-9) withstood a furious final charge by the archrival Coyotes (246) to pull off the upset.
“We’re balanced, we’re a team, and that proved it right there, everyone stepped up and played their role,” Goddard coach Jared Neighbors said.
The Rockets were up 52-47 with about 30 seconds left when Coyotes senior Jaedyn De La Cerda nailed a 3-pointer.
After Goddard senior Katherine Kolker drew a foul and made one of two free throws, Roswell junior Kaitlyn Holl scored to bring her team within one point.
Another foul sent Rockets sophomore Bailey Beene to the line, where she missed both free throws before Kolker bailed her out by securing the offensive rebound. Kolker was fouled and again made one of two.
De La Cerda, who will play for the New Mexico Lobos next season, raced up the court, but her shot from just inside the half-court line was partially blocked as the time ran out on Roswell.
“I kind of felt like the big difference for us was probably at the free-throw line and getting outrebounded,” Coyotes coach Fernando Sanchez said.
Kolker finished with 19 points to lead Goddard. Her sister and fellow senior Micaela Kolker added 18 points.
De La Cerda finished with a game-high 20 points for Roswell.