Lady Tigers win their seventh game in a row
The Lady Tigers (13-6) extended their winning streak to seven games on Saturday (Jan. 29) when they topped the Los Alamos Hilltoppers (9-9), 43-33. The doubledigit victory is not representative of the nature of the game. The Hilltoppers presented themselves as a veritable obstacle for the Lady Tigers to overcome.
Six-footer Emma Raven, of Los Alamos, made scoring inside for the Lady Tigers a difficult task. The lack of scoring in the first quarter might also be attributed to rust. Prior to Saturday, the last time the Lady Tigers played a basketball game was two weeks prior against St. Pius on Jan. 15 in the Hope Christian Tournament championship round.
As proof of the scoring struggle, five minutes into the basketball game, at the 2:55 mark, the score between the two teams was 1-2, in favor of the Hilltoppers, after a tough layup by point guard Carley Holland. It was not necessarily a sloppy display of offense but rather stringent defense from both teams. The referees also let the girls play, holding on to their whistles on most plays involving contact. At one point a fan from the home stand yelled out loud, “blow your whistle.”
The game might have given fans of the Lady Tigers anxiety but it was another grit-and-grind-type battle that Taos often excels in. They make other teams work for it on both ends, and when shots aren’t falling they don’t waver — they persevere.
The Lady Tigers shot 36 percent from the field, 0 percent from 3-point range, 54 percent from the free throw line, and still won the game.
Dahnyell Martinez was booked with two fouls in the first quarter. She would not be seen again until halfway through the third.
Between the verticality of Raven and the physicality of Michelle Macias, Kionamua Ely had early struggles scoring in the post. In spite of those mountains down low, Ely kept on fighting. She tied the game 4-4, with under a minute to go in the first quarter on a post play where she was being fronted aggressively by Macias. Marika Moyer noticed the
slight pivot move by Ely to get the inside track and threw the soft lob over the top, but it was too late
for the help defender on the weak side to rotate and contest the wide open layup.
The simple-looking play could have been a tricky tactical adjustment made by coach Eric Mares. Ely and Shaylee Mirabal don’t usually play together, as they occupy the same space on the floor. Against the troublesome length of Los Alamos, Ely and Mirabal posted up on opposite sides of the paint, allowing for a one-on-one situation after the successful entry pass.
The Lady Tigers led 6-4 after the first quarter.
When it seemed like Taos might pull away, the Hilltoppers climbed right back into it. After Isabela Herrera made one of two free throws, Holland knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing. On the next play, GG Romero got a steal from a pass thrown into a packed paint and passed it out ahead to Holland for the game-tying layup, making the score 9-9.
A couple of calls didn’t go the Lady Tigers’ way when they had a four-point lead, 13-9. The first one was a reaching foul on Madelynn Quintana on a fadeaway jump shot. On the second one, Jade Mares sacrificed her body for a charge attempt that was called a blocking foul, her feet weren’t set.
To finish the half strong, Ely executed a series of beautiful face up post moves where she jab stepped right, drove left, stopped in front of a group of three defenders, pulled up for the soft jumpshot, and finished through the contact from one of the defenders impeding on her landing space.
The Lady Tigers held on to the slim lead at half-time, 15-13.
The Lady Tigers shifted into another gear to start the third quarter. Herrera came out aggressive in the second half, driving past the passive zone defense for the bucket. Martinez with rested legs from sitting on the bench for most of the first half was able to disrupt and create havoc for the Hilltoppers.
On an inbound play, after a couple of Ely free throws, Martinez got the steal. Shortly after, she found herself open near the free throw line and hit a timely jump shot to extend the lead to 5, 23-18. Los Alamos called a timeout.
After the timeout, the Lady Tigers forced a five-second violation. They didn’t capitalize on their offensive possession but on the next play Moyer picked the pockets of Sofia Trujillo at half court and got sent to the free throw line by the hard Trujillo foul to prevent the easy layup. Two free throws by Moyer made it 25-18.
The Hilltoppers kept it within reach until the final minutes of the fourth quarter.