Lady Tigers on a 12-game winning streak
The Lady Tigers (18-6) continue to produce win after win after win. Their 12 game winning streak has now put them in 22nd place in the NM High School Girls Basketball Rankings. Division rival Moriarty (16-4) is ranked 15th. They have one less win, one less losses, and a similar strength of schedule, but have a worse winning percentage (0.83) than Taos (1.00) in the 4A-2 district. Taos at 6-0 lead the district.
The Lady Pintos are legit contenders. Their guards Aneesa Chavez, Payton Edwards, and Sophia Marez are quick enough to beat their defender off the dribble and also smart enough to make the right play by either finishing at the rim or passing it to a teammate waiting near the baseline. Evann Segura plays the game like a stretch 4, capable of scoring inside over smaller defenders and also comfortable shooting the ball from beyond the arc. Their offense is fluid, as a team they read the floor and create space for one another without stalling.
The Lady Tigers offer a contrasting style of basketball. While not as explosive, they are tough and physical. They jump the passing lanes and crash the boards on both ends. Anyone doing a scouting report knows Dahnyell Martinez is an absolute ball hawk. What might fly under the radar is how sneakily effective Madelynn Quintana is at timing blocks without fouling. She had four blocks in the game and she also got a charge.Their offense runs at a slower tempo unless they force a turnover on defense. They’re methodical and calculated in their half court sets.
In the first minute Edwards got off to the races, breaking down the Lady Tigers defense with a fancy dribble-in dribble-out move to open up a driving lane for herself. When she was met by resistance near the rim she tossed the ball
behind her while in mid-air with her left hand to the wide open Hannah Beukelmen who had all the time in the world to make the uncontested jump shot off the glass. On the next play Chavez got a steal and took it coast to coast for
the layup. Pintos led 4-0.
The Tigers fought back with hard nosed bully-ball basketball in the post. Martinez split through two defenders, protected the ball with both hands and layed it in. Kionamua Ely made a tough shot through contact for an And-1 opportunity. She missed the free throw but Quintana secured the offensive rebound and drew a foul on her shot attempt.
With a minute left to go in the first quarter the Lady Tigers were down 9-11. They got the lead with a play that’s emblematic of their brand of basketball. Martinez saves the ball from going out of bounds from a missed Marika Moyer shot. Moyer misses another shot. Quintana almost gets the rebound, Segura taps it away from Quintana. From near the wall which is about five to seven feet from the baseline
out of bounds line, Martinez sprints back to the right wing for the long rebound. She passes it back to Moyer and runs to the left wing, drawing defenders along the way. Moyer then finds the wide open Quintana for the 3-pointer. Tigers lead 12-11
At halftime the Tigers led 28-24. The Lady Tigers outscored the Lady Pintos 17-7 in the third quarter. To start the fourth the Lady Tigers led by 14, 45-31. Half way through the fourth, Segura went on a tear to make it a one possession game. First she hit a baseline floater. Then she started chucking 3-pointers, and knocked down two of them to make it 48-46. Marez tied it at 50-50. The two teams then exchanged clutch baskets, keeping the game even.
Coach Eric Mares called a timeout with 3.4 seconds to go. The game was tied 52-52. Moyer then proceeded to hit the game winning buzzer beater after receiving a pass from Ely from half court. There was a tense second where the referees wanted to make sure the basket was shot before the buzzer. Once the referees confirmed it, coach Mares did a victory fist pump like Tiger Woods at the Masters. The Lady Tigers got in a huddle and jumped ecstatically for a handful of seconds before having to break off to shake hands with the Lady Pintos.
The Lady Tigers defeated the Lady Hilltoppers on Tuesday Feb. 16 by a score of 39-24.
Tigers pummel Pintos
After a slow start in their game against Pojoaque on Tuesday, the Tigers were a force to be reckoned with against the Moriarty Pintos on Saturday Feb. 12. It was a standard demolition job as the Tigers have done many times before this season.
Daemon Ely usually plays down low in the Tigers defensive zone schemes as a solid rim protector, but in this game he was positioned near the top of the zone. His wingspan, and agility for a center, wreaked havoc on the Moriarty guards. First he blocked a Michael Magoffe 3-point shot attempt. When the ball came back to Magoffe and he tried to drive it inside, Ely poked the ball out of his hands and then initiated the fast break for the Tigers that led to free throws. Then from a missed Jeremy Padilla 3-point shot attempt, Ely tapped the long rebound to himself down the court where he had a runway for an emphatic one handed dunk. It was a SportsCenter worthy highlight.
Moriarty’s first score came from a technical. Their first field goal came at the 3:55 mark of the first quarter, cutting the Tiger lead to 10, 3-13. Taos outscored Moriarty 25-9 in the first quarter and would go on to win 80-42. Anthony Padilla finished with 26 points.