Miranda Salazar takes a beating every time on the court.
The in-your-face point guard has a gash on her hand from two games ago, a black eye from the next game, and after her most recent game she had an ice pack around her knee.
“She’s the scrappy one,” said forward Ethena Silva. “(She will) go rip the ball from the bigs.”
Salazar, in her third season as starting point guard, is leading the Lady Eagles (4-4) as they look to return to conference tournament this year. They lost on Nov. 25 in their home opener against Division-II Western Colorado (2-3), with the Mountaineers’ hot shooting making the difference.
“I truly think that the team as a whole got better tonight,” Silva said. “Coming out and seeing that there’s a crowd, that does something for you as a hooper.”
Salazar led the Eagles with 11 points, and Silva also scored 11.
“Miranda brings such leadership,” said first-year coach Samantha Stukes. “You can see it in her play. She just brings a level of poise. She plays with such fire.”
Northern’s point guard plays in the same style fans would remember from her days at Española Valley High School. Leading the offense from the point. Hands everywhere on defense. Never an easy moment for an opponent with the ball. Generally not fun to play against.
Northern finished last season with just five active players, who had to go all 40 minutes start to finish. And while other players might relish the opportunity for extra playing time and scoring opportunities, after seeing it firsthand, the Eagles are happy to have help on the bench. And they quickly formed a team with a large group of newcomers.
“We wanted a full squad,” Silva said. “We wanted those six, seven, eight players. We welcomed them, because we knew there were going to do nothing else but help us.”
Against Western Colorado, the Eagles lost the tipoff, but Silva scored the game’s first points. From the start, Northern was looking to move quickly on offense, while the Mountaineers slowed the game down with a methodical half-court offense, and they held an 11-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, a barrage of Western Colorado 3-pointers — five in the quarter — opened up a 34-24 lead at halftime and may have made the difference in the game.
The Mountaineers continued with seven straight points in the third quarter before Silva’s 3-pointer. But by the end of three, they led by 15.
“It’s a game of runs,” Stukes said. “We didn’t do the best job at hitting them back.”
The Eagles started the second half with a run of their own, 8-2, to get within single digits. But then Western Colorado scored seven straight points to mostly close out the game. Northern kept fighting to the end, but could not close the gap.
“We saw that we can fight through a whole game through adversity,” Salazar said. “Just knowing that none of us gave up tonight.”
The evening was originally scheduled to begin with a Peñasco girls game against Santa Rosa, but snow on the road forced the Lions to cancel the game.
The Lady Eagles next play at home on Monday against New Mexico Highlands (1-3); the Cowgirls beat the Eagles on their home court by 10 on Nov. 14. Then, they head to Larence, Kan. for the Haskell Classic.
Tune to Netflix to see Northern Assistant
Northern women’s basketball assistant coach TJ Stukes (who is also Samantha’s husband) was scrolling on Twitter when he saw a post that made him do a double take: a new Netflix reality show was casting. And it was the last day to apply.
“Initially, I said no to myself,” Stukes said. “Then I was like — screw it. Boom. History.”
TJ Stukes turned into a reality TV star last week with the release of Squid Game: The Challenge on Netflix.
“Possibly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life,” he said. “I didn’t know that I had to push myself that far.”
The show features 456 contestants competing in children’s games for a shot at a $4.56 million prize. (In the 2021 original drama, a dark satirical thriller, the contestants are “eliminated” in a much more violent fashion than in the new reality show.)
After the first batch of episodes, Stukes is one of 63 remaining contestants vying for the prize. The second batch of episodes releases on Wednesday.
TJ left to film in January for five weeks, leaving Samantha in charge of their two children, aged 10 and 13, with no contact.
“That was the first time ever we had zero contact,” Samantha said. “I was sending messages every other day, just kind of keeping him in the loop on what was going on at home. The longer he was gone, the better he was doing.”
Samantha and TJ competed together on “The Cube”, an episodic reality show hosted by Dwyane Wade on TBS, and won $50,000 in the series’ first episode.
We shall see just how far the 6-foot-8 basketball coach makes it.
ash on her hand from two games ago, a black eye from the next game, and after her most recent game she had an ice pack around her knee.
“She’s the scrappy one,” said forward Ethena Silva. “(She will) go rip the ball from the bigs.”
Salazar, in her third season as starting point guard, is leading the Lady Eagles (4-4) as they look to return to conference tournament this year. They lost on Nov. 25 in their home opener against Division-II Western Colorado (2-3), with the Mountaineers’ hot shooting making the difference.
“I truly think that the team as a whole got better tonight,” Silva said. “Coming out and seeing that there’s a crowd, that does something for you as a hooper.”
Salazar led the Eagles with 11 points, and Silva also scored 11.
“Miranda brings such leadership,” said first-year coach Samantha Stukes. “You can see it in her play. She just brings a level of poise. She plays with such fire.”
Northern’s point guard plays in the same style fans would remember from her days at Española Valley High School. Leading the offense from the point. Hands everywhere on defense. Never an easy moment for an opponent with the ball. Generally not fun to play against.
Northern finished last season with just five active players, who had to go all 40 minutes start to finish. And while other players might relish the opportunity for extra playing time and scoring opportunities, after seeing it firsthand, the Eagles are happy to have help on the bench. And they quickly formed a team with a large group of newcomers.
“We wanted a full squad,” Silva said. “We wanted those six, seven, eight players. We welcomed them, because we knew there were going to do nothing else but help us.”
Against Western Colorado, the Eagles lost the tipoff, but Silva scored the game’s first points. From the start, Northern was looking to move quickly on offense, while the Mountaineers slowed the game down with a methodical half-court offense, and they held an 11-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, a barrage of Western Colorado 3-pointers — five in the quarter — opened up a 34-24 lead at halftime and may have made the difference in the game.
The Mountaineers continued with seven straight points in the third quarter before Silva’s 3-pointer. But by the end of three, they led by 15.
“It’s a game of runs,” Stukes said. “We didn’t do the best job at hitting them back.”
The Eagles started the second half with a run of their own, 8-2, to get within single digits. But then Western Colorado scored seven straight points to mostly close out the game. Northern kept fighting to the end, but could not close the gap.
“We saw that we can fight through a whole game through adversity,” Salazar said. “Just knowing that none of us gave up tonight.”
The evening was originally scheduled to begin with a Peñasco girls game against Santa Rosa, but snow on the road forced the Lions to cancel the game.
The Lady Eagles next play at home on Monday against New Mexico Highlands (1-3); the Cowgirls beat the Eagles on their home court by 10 on Nov. 14. Then, they head to Larence, Kan. for the Haskell Classic.
Tune to Netflix to see Northern Assistant
Northern women’s basketball assistant coach TJ Stukes (who is also Samantha’s husband) was scrolling on Twitter when he saw a post that made him do a double take: a new Netflix reality show was casting. And it was the last day to apply.
“Initially, I said no to myself,” Stukes said. “Then I was like — screw it. Boom. History.”
TJ Stukes turned into a reality TV star last week with the release of Squid Game: The Challenge on Netflix.
“Possibly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life,” he said. “I didn’t know that I had to push myself that far.”
The show features 456 contestants competing in children’s games for a shot at a $4.56 million prize. (In the 2021 original drama, a dark satirical thriller, the contestants are “eliminated” in a much more violent fashion than in the new reality show.)
After the first batch of episodes, Stukes is one of 63 remaining contestants vying for the prize. The second batch of episodes releases on Wednesday.
TJ left to film in January for five weeks, leaving Samantha in charge of their two children, aged 10 and 13, with no contact.
“That was the first time ever we had zero contact,” Samantha said. “I was sending messages every other day, just kind of keeping him in the loop on what was going on at home. The longer he was gone, the better he was doing.”
Samantha and TJ competed together on “The Cube”, an episodic reality show hosted by Dwyane Wade on TBS, and won $50,000 in the series’ first episode.
We shall see just how far the 6-foot-8 basketball coach makes it.