The Escalante Lady Lobos might be the best team in 2A, and proved their mettle with another district championship.
A dominant defensive outing led the Lady Lobos (19-7) to a huge victory in the District 5-2A tournament final, beating Peñasco (17-12) 50-31 on Friday. Escalante has now won nine straight games and picked up a district title for the third-straight year. They now expect to be the top overall seed at the state tournament for the second year in a row.
“It’s what we’re supposed to do,” Escalante coach Bryan Gonzales said. “Peñasco, hats off to them, they gave us a really good game. We’re just going to focus on whoever we have next. We’ll enjoy this one until tomorrow.”
That defense has been the strong point for Escalante, as they have held their opponents to 45 or fewer points in every game on that win streak.
The Lady Lobos core of seniors Katelyn Hinds, Brycelyn Martinez, Emma Maestas and Cipriana Garcia, all key contributors and often starters for three or more years, celebrated their third straight district championship (the last two have been both regular season and tournament, while there was no district tournament in 2021).
The game started slow on the scoreboard, with both teams missing shots while locked down defensively. Escalante missed opportunities early, and first scored nearly four minutes into the game, though they took an 8-7 lead through one quarter.
In the second, both teams went back and forth as the scoring picked up, with the Lobos leading 19-16 at halftime after several lead changes.
But in the second half, the Lady Lobos came out on fire with a more patient offense. They scored 11 straight points to go up by 14. And as Peñasco started to fight back, Escalante was able to answer and keep their lead steady, though the Panthers got back to within six.
“We’re just taking it one game at a time, and for this game we focused on doing it one quarter at a time, and just chipping away at them slowly,” Escalante senior Audriana Talamante said.
But in the fourth quarter, Escalante’s defense fully locked in, limiting Peñasco to just two points in the final frame. Talamante came away with several big steals late in the game, as the Lobos built their lead higher and higher to ultimately win by 19.
“We just came out focused and with energy,” Martinez said. “We were all working together.”
Talamante has taken on a big role this year after not playing much last year, starting most of the season and especially playing big on defense.
“I have amazing teammates who help me and push me all the way, Talamante said, “and an amazing coach who’s helped me get where I am.”
Peñasco had reached the final game with a comeback upset win over Mesa Vista (22-5) the night before, after they had trailed by 16 points in the first half. The Panthers beat Questa (11-16) and McCurdy (1-24) earlier in the district tournament. But, playing their fourth game in five days, they ran out of firepower against the Lobos late in the game.
Maestas led Escalante with 15 points, including 7-for-10 free-throw shooting. Rochelle Lopez scored 13 and shot 7-for-8 from the free-throw line.
After the game, all-district teams were announced, and Brycelyn Martinez was named the district player of the year.
“I’m very appreciate and I’m thankful,” Martinez said. “I didn’t get here by myself, we all worked together.”
“She’s been a great leader, she leads by example,” Gonzales said of Martinez. “She works just as hard in practice as she does in the game. It was an easy decision for the district. I really didn’t have to nominate her, they did that on their own.”
For district seeding procedures, while Mesa Vista tracked as an easy No. 1 seed for most of the season, the higher-finishing team in a district automatically is seeded higher in the tournament, meaning the Lobos must be seeded higher, and likely will be top again. Last year, as the top seed, they won big in the first three rounds, but lost in the final to Clayton in the final seconds. This year, they will look to finish the job and go all the way.
“Doesn’t matter what the seed is,” said Gonzales, who has state championship experience at Pecos in 2021. “You’ve got to beat everybody anyways. We’re just going to be thankful and grateful that we get in.”