Robertson prevents Lady Tigers hot streak
The Taos Lady Tigers have started the new year on a positive note, stringing together back-to-back victories at home, against Aztec, winning 41-22 on Wednesday (Jan. 4) and beating 51-48 Capital on Saturday (Jan. 7) before heading out on the road Monday (Jan. 9) where they ran into a bandsaw known as the Robertson Lady Cardinals.
The Cardinals have won a majority of their games by double digits and have only lost to Centennial, an opponent two classes above them in the 5A class. Robertson defeated the Taos Tigers 60-19 this week, despite the Tigers heating up in their previous two games.
Against Aztec
The Taos Lady Tigers hung their hats on the defensive end against Aztec (also Lady Tigers) on Jan. 4 by limiting them to 22 points and blanking them out entirely in the third quarter. Aztec committed 28 turnovers in that 19 point loss.
Taos followed that up with a game where it looked like the Lady Tigers might have a comfortable victory sealed up by the end of the third quarter against Capital. Against Capital
Taos had the momentum in the second half against the Capital Lady Jaguars, whose Layla Cintron was getting frustrated with the officiating.
Cintron, playing with a big bandage over one of her eyebrows and a knee brace, had some choice words for the referees and was booked for a technical and was ejected shortly thereafter for doubling down on her hand-gesturing aggression towards one of the men wearing the black-and-white striped shirts.
Then Shaylee Mirabal lined up at the charity stripe to take on four free throws with everyone behind half court watching her shoot. In a very composed manner she took her time and sank all four. The Lady Tigers would then build their lead to 14 points, putting them at 26-12 midway through the third quarter.
Then the Lady Jaguars went on a run.
The referees were calling everything tight, and Taos kept sending Capital to the free throw line. Taos forced some difficult passes that resulted in turnovers. When the Lady Tigers had chances of scoring from free throws after driving hard to the rim they would miss those shots and they would miss bunnies at the rim as well.
With all their mishaps the Lady Tigers still led to start the fourth quarter 28-25.
Playing with newfound confidence, Capital started to make their jump shots in the fourth and would eventually get out in front of Taos.
Taos had to claw back into the game late in the fourth quarter.
A Julianna Flores hook shot offthe-glass put Taos within a point of Capital with little over a minute left.
From there each team took turns making crucial mistakes. First Capital couldn’t cross the half court line in time due to the Lady Tiger press. After a tough finish from Flores over the top of the outstretched hands of a Lady Jaguar, Taos held a one-point lead. Capital threw another errant pass out of the Lady Tiger press and then fouled Arianna Gutierrez sending her to the charity stripe.
After Arianna Gutierrez hit one of two free throws the Lady Tigers held a two-point lead and Capital had 23.8 seconds left to tie it up.
A jump shot that clanked hard off the rim fell into the hands of a Lady Jaguar, who shot it up immediately and tied the game 41-41.
With six seconds left to go, Taos turned it over on a double dribble. The Lady Jaguars had a chance to steal the game but instead Annica Montoya heaved an airball to send the game into overtime.
Overtime was even more chaotic than the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.
Gutierrez quickly got things going in overtime with a threepointer from an inbounds play.
Amerie Romero then got the and-one opportunity and the Lady Tigers were charged with a technical foul to boot. With the chance to get five points and possession of the ball again, Capital scored three points, missing two out of their three free throws, and took the ball back.
Taos then stole the ball. Isla Chavez tied the game 46-46 with a clutch jumpshot just inside of the 3-point line.
Capital then botched an inbounds pass. In an interesting no-call, Chavez was shoved from behind by Nicole Salazar on a loose ball scramble, the ball bounced off of Chavez’ body but the referee declared it off of Capital and back to Taos, a call that infuriated both teams.
Taos turned it over and then a Madelaine Portillo layup gave Capital the lead back, 48-46.
Valerie Mares sank one of two free throws to bring it within one point 48-47, after getting fouled off of an inbounds play.
The Lady Tigers full court press almost forced another turnover but Capital head coach Darren Casados wisely called a timeout to keep them from committing a 10-second violation. Capital still botched the inbounds play after the timeout.
Flores off of the steal went full speed ahead to the rim and forced the Lady Jaguars to foul her on the drive.
Flores sank the first but missed the second making it 48-48. Valerie Mares pried the loose ball away from two Lady Jaguars and was fouled immediately. Once again she made one of two free throws this time giving the Lady Tigers a one point lead, 49-48. On defense Valerie Mares got her hands in the cookie jar and stole the ball from Valeria Rodriguez in transition without fouling. Then leading the fast break she hit Flores with a nice dime that gave Taos the 51-48 victory.
Eric Mares spoke with the Taos News after the hard fought victory.
“You know our girls are showing the composure that we’ve been working on all year,” he said. “We were missing a lot of free throws. But we made them at the end. Our younger girls are stepping up. Our older girls are setting some solid foundations for us.”
Eric Mares commented on the team’s chemistry during their twogame winning streak.
“I think the unselfishness and the team on the bench. Everybody’s contributing. It’s not a single person that didn’t contribute to this win. So I think that speaks volumes to what these girls have accomplished and what they’re doing. So we’ll see for districts.”