Tuesday’s (Dec. 27) match within the first spherical of the St. Michael’s Girl Horsemen Match was their sixth encounter with the Taos Tigers since 2010 and, whereas the Panthers prevailed over their Taos County opponent, they misplaced to Hope Christian within the championship sport.
Because the smaller 2A faculty, Peñasco has gone toe-to-toe with the larger 4A Taos, profitable only one different sport of their six matchups earlier than final week. The opposite two losses had been inside single digits.
Peñasco made it previous the primary spherical of the match in opposition to Taos with a gritty second-half efficiency to win it 39-33. To win the sport, the workforce needed to embody the ethos discovered on the again of coach Mandy Montoya’s shirt: Earn All the things.
Nothing got here simple, nonetheless, as each groups had been face-guarding from far past the perimeter. Peñasco level guard Rochelle Lopez needed to play the function of a conventional throwback level guard, passing first and sometimes to get away from the Taos defensive stress, discovering open teammates, and dealing the ball inside to the publish.
And the publish is the place Peñasco discovered success. There, Analise MacAuley scored 18 factors and nabbed 15 rebounds for a double double. MacAuley has eyes for the basket and the footwork to get her in place for the bucket. Within the second quarter, she hit Taos with an underneath-the-basket reverse layup, and that was with Jade Mares enjoying tight protection.
Because of the 3-point taking pictures of Isla Chavez and Arianna Gutierrez, Taos held a 19-15 lead at halftime. Girl Tiger Vanessa Herrera offered high quality minutes within the third quarter in getting a steal from leaping the passing lanes after which attending to the free-throw line by driving to the basket. The Girl Tigers held on to a 28-25 lead on the finish of the third quarter.
Within the fourth quarter, Peñasco’s workforce was rewarded for attacking the paint and constructed a small lead over Taos. Taos needed to commit fouls and hope for missed free throws to get again into the sport, however Peñasco pulled via to win 39-33.
After the primary spherical within the Girl Horsemen Match, the Panthers defeated the 4A Los Alamos Girl Hilltoppers in time beyond regulation 59-55.
However Peñasco couldn’t full the 4A trifecta within the championship spherical, dropping to the Hope Christian Girl Huskies 61-29.
The Girl Huskies had the dimensions benefit and used it successfully within the second half. Peñasco was inside 5 factors (29-24) of Hope Christian with a little bit beneath six minutes to go within the third quarter earlier than the Girl Huskies went on a 32-5 run to shut out the sport.
Up subsequent for the Girl Panthers might be a sport in opposition to Pecos in Española on the twenty seventh Annual Northern Rio Grande Match on Thursday (Jan. 5).
The subsequent sport for the Girl Tigers might be a house sport on Saturday (Jan. 7) in opposition to the Capital Girl Jaguars.
