When Peñasco’s girls played in Tierra Amarilla on Feb. 12, they limited Escalante to just 30 points in an upset win — coach Stanford Salazar said the team shot about 10 percent on field goal attempts.
When the two teams rematched for the district championship two weeks later, the Lady Lobos hit that mark in the second quarter; they scored 23 in just the first quarter.
“We just came in hungrier from last time,” said Escalante junior Cipriana Garcia. “We wanted it that much more.”
That big start propelled Escalante (20-4) to a 57-34 victory to take the District 5-2A title over Peñasco in the Feb. 26 championship game.
“We’re excited to take that one more step to what we want, what we’ve been working for,” said Garcia, who after the game was named the district player of the year.
Peñasco (18-9) defeated Mesa Vista (18-8) in the semifinal on Feb. 25.
The gymnasium was seemingly at capacity, and added more and more noise after every basket and turnover. Emma Maestas hit two 3-pointers back-to-back to give Escalante a 10-1 lead after three minutes, and they led by 13 halfway through the first quarter.
Escalante managed to hold Peñasco’s three leading scorers — Analise MacAuley, Martina Tafoya and Rochelle Lopez — to just three combined field goals in the game.
Brycelyn Martinez scored 17 points to lead the way in the victory.
Peñasco’s strong second half ended with a disappointing three losses in their final five games; but their strength of schedule was still strong enough to earn a top-four seed.
“We just weren’t getting rattled,” said Peñasco coach Mandy Montoya. “We started running our offense, hitting the open players, swinging the ball around.”
The Lady Panthers will host Capitan (17-8) in the first round, and if they advance will see the winner between No. 5 Rehoboth Christian and No. 12 Mescalero Apache.
“We know that we can play with anybody,” Montoya said. “Everybody goes into the state tournament zero and zero.”
Escalante also looks to the state tournament (see team capsules) led by Garcia as the top seed.
“I put in a lot of work, so it’s believing that it’s kind of paying off,” Garcia said of her award. “But it doesn’t really mean nothing right now. We want blue.”