The Española Valley Lady Sundevils learned Dec. 23 that there is nothing free about free throws. The Sundevils missed the front end of three one-and-one opportunities in the closing minutes of the championship game of the Ben Lujan Invitational tournament in Pojoaque as the Socorro Lady Warriors came away with a 54-50 victory.
“Those free throws were important, and we missed them,” Española guard Nisa Duran said. “We didn’t have any patience and wanted to get up the court too fast.”
Española had taken a 50-43 lead with 2:47 left to play in the game when Duran stood at the free-throw line with an opportunity to extend the lead to nine points. She missed the first free throw, and the Warriors answered with two quick baskets by Jaden Jones and Samantha Sedillo to cut the lead to 50-47 with less than two minutes left.
With 1:26 to go in the game, Española’s Melanie Vigil missed another free throw that led to a game-tying three-pointer from the corner by Warrior Kianna Gonzales. It was Gonzales’ only basket of the game.
“She made that three when she had to,” Socorro coach Joe Garcia said. “We ran that play for her.”
With 40 seconds left in the game, Duran missed the third fateful free throw. Socorro’s Roxanne Silva, who had torched the Sundevils for 21 points in the first half, took the ball strong to the basket. Her shot missed, but she grabbed her own rebound and scored on a putback to give Socorro a 52-50 lead with 19 seconds left to play.
The Sundevils fumbled the ball away on the ensuing possession, and Sedillo scored on a breakaway layup for the game’s final points. Socorro finished the game with an 11-0 run.
“Our girls were just dead at the end,” Garcia said. “We just extended our press, and they started turning the ball over.”
The loss spoiled a fine comeback by the Sundevils led by sophomore Desiree Howie, who scored seven of her team-leading 17 points in the third quarter to erase a 10-point deficit. The Sundevils took a 38-37 lead into the fourth quarter.
“We missed some free throws and had those turnovers at the end,” Española coach Ron Drake said. “We rushed some shots and lost our patience.”
Silva led all scorers with 29 points.
Duran, Howie and Vigil were all named to the all-tournament team
The Sundevils had defeated Peñasco 48-36 Dec. 21 in the tournament’s opening round. They advanced to the championship game with a 57-55 come-from-behind victory over the West Las Vegas Lady Dons the following night.
Drake didn’t breathe a sigh of relief in that latter game until the Dons’ Vanessa Lucero’s missed a three-pointer as time expired.
“She’s a good three-point shooter,” Drake said. “On that last shot I just closed my eyes and listened to the crowd.”