Lady Leopard mistakes down the stretch lead to 28-25 loss to Mora
As the game dwindled, matters only became worse and worse for the Coronado High School girls basketball team.
The fourth quarter could not have been any uglier for both the Lady Leopards (7-9) and the Mora High School girls basketball team, and the Rangerettes (5-13) were fortunate to steal a District 5-2A road win in Gallina on Jan. 30 by defeating Coronado 28-25 in the waning seconds.
The biggest footprint on the game came from Mora’s defense, who when decided to press and play tight in the second half, forced the Lady Leopards into lackadaisical and careless play.
After Coronado eighth-grader Ashlynn Jaramillo made the front end of a 1-and-1 and missed the second free throw attempt with 43 seconds remaining in the game, the Lady Leopards held a 25-24 advantage.
However, turnovers were the major theme of the second half and fourth quarter, and two Coronado giveaways in the final nine seconds led to four consecutive points for Mora, who shot 0-of-4 in the fourth before making its final three attempts from the field.
The first of those two field goals marked the Rangerettes’ first lead of the entire game at 26-25.
Overall, the Lady Leopards turned the ball over on 13 of their final 16 possessions. Backcourt players were responsible for six turnovers in the final minute, including the final two that led to the Rangerettes scoring the final four points.
“Sometimes, Mora didn’t even have to get what was handed to them,” Coronado head coach Henry Gettler said. “The only thing we didn’t do was make the layup for them; it’s just that simple.”
Both teams struggled vitally in the fourth quarter, as Coronado finished with a goose egg 0-of-4 mark from the field while making just one free throw, and Mora had only recorded two points up until the final nine seconds.
The Lady Leopards had built a 10-3 lead after a quarter and a 16-10 advantage at halftime in a first half that featured far less turnovers; however, some carelessness with the ball did begin to surface in the second quarter.
“At the point where we led 14-5 (in the second quarter), there were three possessions where we turned the ball over,” Gettler said. “The game became super close after that; we could have potentially been up 24-5, but we missed shots and kept turning the darn ball over.”
Although there were some missed opportunities for Coronado to further extend the halftime lead, Mora still had to battle back to erase an 11-point second half deficit.
After Raegan Cordova drilled a triple from the right corner to give the Lady Leopards a 21-10 advantage with 4:57 left in the third quarter, the Rangerettes closed the quarter on an 11-3 run while shooting 5-of-8 from the field over those eight minutes.
Meanwhile, Mora head coach Mark Montoya’s decision to press paid dividends by continuing to force turnovers and holding Coronado to four points over the final 11:43 of the game.
Even after breaking the press successfully, the Lady Leopards struggled to execute called offensive sets, as well as score the ball underneath after passing into the post.
“We had 13 post touches after our initial score of the third quarter,” Gettler said. “We were 0-of-13 on those opportunities and we never made it to the free throw line.”
A majority of Coronado’s season has been characterized by performances such as in the Mora game, but having a full number of players available to suit up has also been inconsistent.
While 10 players were available against the Rangerettes, the Lady Leopards have gone to battle in many games with just six available players.
“It’s either we have an incomplete set of girls playing or it’s that performance,” Gettler said. “When you have 13 turnovers over your final 16 possessions there is only so much a coach can do. We got to hope that girls can win games because coaches don’t win games, players do — and we saw a perfect example of that tonight.”
Shanay Casados did the heavy lifting for Mora by scoring a game-high 14 points, while Jenessa Madrid led Coronado with 10 and Jazmyn Delgado provided another nine.
After one day of rest, Coronado made a road trip to Questa High School on Feb. 1 and fell to 7-10 overall for the season and 0-3 in District play after losing 65-41 to the Lady Wildcats.
The brightest spot for Coronado was the play of Madrid, who recorded a double-double with 23 points and 15 rebounds.
“The only thing Madrid didn’t do was work the concession stand and play the music during the pregame and halftime,” Gettler said. “To put it in perspective, she outscored and outrebounded our entire team by herself. She had 23 points versus the rest of team, who had 18.”
The Lady Leopards kept things competitive early and only trailed by six points at halftime, but turnovers again haunted them in the second half like in the matchup against Mora.
“Once again, we stayed close until we decided to just give the ball away countless times in the second half,” Gettler said. “Our backcourt accounted for 4-of-25 from the field and shot a total of six free throws.”