Given she’s just a sophomore, Pecos High School’s Trinity Herrera is still soft-spoken, however, her game did all the talking for her in the Class 2A state semifinals.
The young guard stole the show by scoring a game-high 25 points, including 15 in the first half to lift Pecos by Peñasco High School, 62-44, March 15 at the Santa Ana Star Center.
In the battle of all Lady Panthers, the Pecos version came out clicking on all cylinders and their second quarter offensive onslaught resulted in a 21-0 run to bury Peñasco (26-4) in a deep hole they could never fully climb out of.
Herrera knocked down a triple amid the run to push the lead to 30-9, just a wrinkle in between her several fast break buckets in transition, many resulting from several of Peñasco’s eight first half turnovers.
“We’re good at running,” was all Herrera managed to say as she sat at the interview table after the game.
“She’s only a sophomore,” Pecos head coach Ron Drake said about her answer. “She’s our shy baby.”
While there was nothing shy about Herrera’s game, the same could be said about Pecos’ defense, which ran out of the 2-3 zone — a scheme mastered by Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim for over 50 years. It helped limit the production of Peñasco big Carly Gonzales as Pecos built their lead in the first and second quarters.
“We took some of their players out of the game and we played really good defense,” Drake said. “My friend Boeheim, man, Jim Boeheim: you know, I even called him up and emailed him one time and thanked him. I’ve been running that 2-3 for 31 years now and it was one the best games these girls had running it. They’re one of my best teams running it, actually.”
Maybe even better than their defense was Pecos’ will to rebound on the offensive end. They hauled in a whopping 20 offensive boards in the first half alone (36 for the game, 56 total) and outscored Peñasco 21-7 in second chance points.
Free throws were just another part of the first half nightmare for Peñasco, as they missed nine of 14 attempts. As a team, Peñasco shot 8-of-19 for the game.
“Free throws and rebounds win games,” Peñasco head coach Gilbert Mascareñas said. “Especially when you play tough defense for that first possession and then they miss and you’re giving them three or four possessions. There’s times the ball will bounce the wrong way, but we got to do a better job boxing out.”
Pecos’ rebounding ability hurt Peñasco in the first matchup of the season in the championship game of the Northern Rio Grande Tournament, a contest in which Gonzales was forced to sit on the bench for almost two quarters in foul trouble and Pecos’ Faith Flores was sidelined due to a shoulder injury.
In the rematch, Flores went to-to-toe with Gonzales most of the night — along with Mikayla Gonzales — in the paint and said it was one of her toughest tasks all season.
“It wasn’t easy, especially blocking out Carly,” Flores said. “She’s strong.”
Quick to Flores defense was coach Drake.
“You are too,” he said. “You just don’t look it.”
Flores snatched 10 boards on the night and two other Pecos players reached double-digits as Herrera had 10 to secure a double-double and senior Cassie Muller had 11 to lead the team along with 13 points.
Peñasco held the lead for just 28 seconds all night long — compared to 30:57 by Pecos — at 7-6 in the first quarter. Their 20 turnovers on the night led to 19 points for Pecos.
“Pecos heated up and they just went at it,” Mascareñas said. “Finally, when we regrouped, we brought it back as much as we could, we just exerted too much energy trying to get back into it.”
Gonzales led Peñasco with 18 points, Adrianna Tafoya totaled 14 and Bianca Contreras had seven as the trio scored 39 of the team’s 44 total points.
The potential matchup of the teams was highly-anticipated when the brackets were released, given the close contest in the NRG championship and the cancellation of the regular season game between the schools twice due to snow.
When time finally did come for the rematch, Pecos was the hungrier team.
“We were prepared for this matchup and we really came out and showed it,” Muller said. “We wanted it and we had a big lead because it all came from our heart. We just wanted it.”
Pecos continued to want it more than any other team in the bracket, as they won the first girls championship in school history by defeating No. 8 Mescalero Apache 53-46 in overtime March 15 at Dreamstyle Arena-The Pit.