Mesa Vista survives another Lady Panther encounter
The Lady Panthers have given the top-ranked team in Class 2A, the Mesa Vista Lady Trojans, some fits here and there between their two matches to date. Previously, they battled to the closing seconds at the Northern Rio Grande tournament in Española.
This time, it was at the Jicarita Gymnasium in Peñasco on Saturday (Jan. 28), when the Jesse Boies-led Lady Trojans escaped another skirmish with a victory in hand: 52-47.
Peñasco primarily employed what appeared to be a 2-3 zone in their half-court sets. Mesa Vista passed the ball around from wing to wing — or from wing to high post and back out to the wing. The Lady Trojans were patient and fired away from 3-point range when the openings in the zone presented themselves.
Between the outside shot not falling much for Mesa Vista, and Rochelle Lopez getting deflections for Peñasco as the guard at the top of the zone, the Lady Panthers’ defensive strategy worked well enough to give Peñasco the 28-25 lead heading into the halftime break.
In this game, which was decided by five points, Tana Lopez was the difference-maker. Lopez has a season high of 29 points on 11-of23 shooting from the field and 4-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Tana Lopez opened up the third quarter with a 3-pointer on the left wing after Mesa Vista forced a turnover on an inbounds pass. The Lady Trojans outscored Peñasco 18-9 in the third.
The Lady Panthers stayed within reach but could not overcome the difference in shooting. Once again, in a Peñasco versus Mesa Vista match, it came down to execution in the final minute. Peñasco couldn’t convert their attempts to tie the game with a 3-point shot and Tana Lopez closed the game out with a pair of free throws to make it a twopossession game.
Alexuis Romero played big on the boards for Peñasco with 14 rebounds. Analise MacAuley was five points shy of a double-double as she grabbed 10 rebounds for the night. Rochelle Lopez filled it up across the stat sheet with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
Next up, the Lady Panthers will head to Questa on Thursday (Feb. 2) to battle the Lady Wildcats.