The Lady Trojans brought back three of their starters from last year, but it is an additional player making as big an impact as any in their impressive season.
Shanae Silva has gone from a bench role to being one of the top players in the north, leading Mesa Vista to a first-place ranking. Her success has come from having “a mind like a goldfish.”
“I’m more confident this year in myself,” Silva said. “If I make a turnover, it’s okay, look to the next play. I don’t pout over it.”
Mesa Vista (13-3) snapped its 12-game win streak with a 50-45 overtime loss at Pecos (10-6) on Wednesday when their vaunted offense vanished, and they will have to rebound for district play.
Silva had a long journey to get to the varsity team.
She started high school at Española Valley. Her freshman year, she was part of a Sundevil C team that won all of their games, often by big margins. After that season, she was part of a 4-player group that, for various reasons, transferred to Mesa Vista.
But of that group, only Bella Boies was allowed to play varsity as a sophomore, with her father hired as a coach at Mesa Vista (Jesse started as the cross country coach, then took over the basketball team after the death of Leonard Torrez.) The other three were stuck on junior varsity for the year.
For her junior season, Silva finally had a chance to contribute, and that she did. She was the sixth woman throughout the season, playing big minutes off the bench and giving a spark. The 5-foot-4 guard finished third on the team with 6.6 points per game.
“If we weren’t doing so good, I’d bring in the heat,” she said.
But as soon as the 2023-24 season started, given a starting role, Shanae exploded. The very first game, she put up 19 points, scoring from all over the court. She’s up to 14 points per game now, second on the team behind Tana Lopez’s remarkable total. (Lopez has had her own impressive jump into her junior season.)
“She’s taking on a role that we knew she was ready for,” team coach Jesse Boies said. “She’s really carried us in the first quarters of a few games.”
She’s a true volume scorer that has already gone to the free-throw line 97 times. A career-high 23 points came against Grants, and had a big 21 points in a game against Escalante, keeping the team in it early when others were struggling.
“She’s tough,” said point guard Bella Boies. “There’s only more to come from her. She carries us, when we’re having a game that’s rough offensively, she picks us up out of it.”
The Lady Trojans started slow with cold shooting that never really picked up. They were down 9-7 after a quarter, with only their defense keeping them in the game. They were a bit better in the middle quarters, going up 21-16 at halftime, and stretched a lead to 41-33 with three minutes remaining.
In that game, it was Lopez who was the only consistent offense, with all of her 24 points coming on drives to the basket (10 in just the fourth quarter).
But Mesa Vista’s defense let out in the end. And Pecos’ Natalia Stout took over the game. The Panthers scored eight straight points, tying the game. Mesa Vista had a chance to expand a two-point lead with two free throws and nine seconds left. But both missed. And on the other end, Stout made two of her own to send the game to overtime.
“We let some officiating get into our heads, possibly,” Jesse Boies said. The crowd was certainly unhappy with some of the calls late in the game.
By overtime, lazy passes led to easy points for Pecos. And Stout scored all nine of her team’s points, in addition to nine in the fourth quarter, finishing with 28 total.
In the junior varsity game, Mesa Vista raced to a 46-18 win.
Silva and her Lady Trojans will have to rebound after a week off before the start of district play. Mesa Vista faces McCurdy (4-6) to start district play on Jan. 23.
“Our real season starts next week,” Jesse Boies said. “We don’t like being number one, and I don’t like it.”