First time for everything
Rivals West Las Vegas, Robertson to face each other Tuesday for first time in postseason
Their schools are separated by just a few minutes’ drive, yet their first meeting on the state’s biggest stage will take place some two hours away.
“That’s probably the way it should be, you know?” says Majic Medina, the head coach of the West Las Vegas girls basketball team that has reached Tuesday’s Class 4A state quarterfinals as the No. 6 seed following a run to the District 2-4A tournament championship.
They won that title by beating crosstown rival Robertson, the regular season 2-4A champ. The Lady Cardinals are the No. 3 seed, having already dispatched district rival St. Michael’s in last weekend’s opening round.
The Las Vegas schools will reunite in prime time Tuesday in The Pit with a berth to the final four on the line.
“In some ways maybe it’s too early to play a game this big, but you play the games they make you,” said Robertson head coach Leroy Barela. “I mean, it’s The Pit, it’s West Las Vegas, it’s the state tournament and it’s at night when there should be a huge crowd. Whether it’s now or in the championship game doesn’t matter, I guess.
It’s always a big game when it’s East-West.”
To both coaches’ knowledge it’s the first meeting between the schools in the postseason. Medina said he has been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.
“This is my 15th year with West and I know we’ve never had Robertson at state, so I guess this makes it the biggest game we’ve ever played against them,” he said.
Robertson comes in with a 21-6 record and a lineup that’s as deep and talented as any in 4A. The starters do the vast majority of the scoring while the bench offers enough depth that the Lady Cardinals have proven they can survive foul-prone nights like they did in the latest win against St. Mike’s.
When Barela looks at what he has, he reiterates a sentiment he has shared all season: The Cardinals are a year ahead of schedule. Having lost two key players to knee injuries, the team is loaded with talented underclassmen that have already surpassed the expectations set forth for them.
The starting backcourt of Tessa Ortiz (freshman) and Maria Barela (eighth-grader) is complimented by veteran post Angelica Montoya (a junior) and shooting guard Alianza Darley (sophomore).
“The signs were there in December, I think, that this could be something special even with the injuries,” Leroy Barela said. “We lost that game to Portales [on Dec. 16] and then came right back and beat Hope the next day. I think we showed — these girls showed — that they were ready to take that step right now and not wait until next year.”
It all leads into Tuesday’s Meadow City showdown with West Las Vegas, a wildly talented team in its own right. The Lady Dons (21-8) are led by junior guard Jenna Bustos and senior guard Alisson Hill. While they don’t have the size down low to hold suit with the likes of Montoya and 5-10 sophomore Jazmyne Jenkins, they have the backcourt to maintain the tempo required to survive and advance.
And, really, that’s what this game boils down to. Surviving your rival’s best shot in front of what should be 10,000 people in the state’s most famous building. Tuesday’s state tournament pairings have 5A games matching crowd-heavy teams like Kirtland Central in the 4:45 p.m. game and the Española Valley-Gallup game immediately following Robertson-West Las Vegas.
“For our community it’s going to be a fun, exciting time,” Medina said. “There’s already talk going on, which is always fun. But here in Las Vegas, especially with the boys’ teams from both schools playing the next night in [The Pit], it’s something everyone in our community to be involved with.”