RIO RANCHO — Taking that natural next step at the high school girls state basketball tournament was not fated to happen for Mesa Vista.
After showing just how good it could be in the quarterfinal game, the Lady Trojans turned around and had one of their worst games of the season in the semifinals as the program was again denied its first-ever trip, one step-shot shy of the state championship game.
No. 3 Pecos 52,
No. 2 Mesa Vista 36
For the first 10 minutes of the March 13 game at the Rio Rancho Event Center, the Lady Trojans (26-3) simply had no answers for what the Lady Panthers (25-6) were throwing out there.
“It was one of the most roughest ones I’ve seen,” said Mesa Vista coach Jesse Boies of that opening stretch. “I don’t know if we came in too hyped up. I don’t know if we got into our heads too early. We missed a few shots and we’re not used to that and things got into their heads.”
The Lady Trojans trailed 14-1 after the first quarter and 18-3 two minutes into the second.
“What we did in the first quarter doesn’t mean anything for what we did all season,” Boies said. “I just told the girls after that first quarter that hey, ‘we’re human. We’re human,’”
And Mesa Vista did show some backbone, scoring 13 consecutive points to pull within 18-16.
The Lady Trojans cut it to 19-18 early in the third quarter with Tana Lopez at the line for a game-tying foul shot.
But the shot went awry and Pecos ran off on a 9-0 run to grab control of the game again.
“We came out of the locker room and I felt I gave a positive speech,” Boies said. “The vibe was good. And they came out flat, so flat. A couple of the girls, maybe they felt the hype of the moment.”
That’s certainly possible as only three seniors were in the main rotation, which included two juniors, two sophomores and an eighth grader.
Lopez, the senior leader finished with her usual, efficient scoring night with 18 points, but she had five turnovers to two assists. Aubrey Maestas contributed 11 points, but usually-steady eighth-grader Aaliyah Boies managed just four points and turned it over seven times, although she did snare seven steals.
Pecos put a box-and-one zone on Lopez to limit her effectiveness and it worked, primarily because no enough other players stepped up offensively.
“They hadn’t done that yet but we were expecting Pecos to do it,” Jesse Boies said. “We just needed shots to fall from the other girls to get them off of Tana. But no shots were falling. If a few shots would have fallen, I think we would have gotten more back in to it.”
It was a rough and emotional finish for Lopez, who still has one more high school basketball game to play as she’s a member of the red squad for Class 1A-2A Red and Green All-Star Basketball Game to be played March 21 in Hobbs.
“She’s not replaceable and will never be replaceable,” Jesse Boies said. “She’s done so much not just for Mesa Vista basketball but New Mexico basketball, Northern New Mexico basketball.”
During a timeout late in the game, coach gave her a little pep talk, then put his arms around her at the final whistle.
“I saw her eyes,” Jesse Boies said. “She was wiping away tears. I told her, ‘We’re not done yet.’ Finally, when the buzzer went off, I looked for her right away. She’s become like another daughter to me. She’s always with us. She’s like a part of the family.”
No. 2 Mesa Vista 72,
No. 7 Eunice 38
The Lady Trojans (26-3) had a game plan to grind down the Lady Cardinals (22-9), and it worked to perfection.
“They came in focused,” coach Jesse Boies said of his group. “They had a good week of practice. They were locked in. They knew what they needed to do. We watched a lot of film on them. We knew who their strong points were on the press breakers and it was just a complete team effort.”
That team effort was led, as usual, by Tana Lopez, who put up 26 points with 10 rebounds, three assists and four steals. Hannah Lopez added nine points and Aaliyah Boies also had nine with five assists and four steals.
“These two (the Lopezes) led us, but it was a complete team effort,” Jesse Boies said. “We only had 12 turnovers total. That’s our best for the season.”
The goal, he said, was to wear them down.
“We gave them some pressure at the beginning and got their feel,” Jesse Boies said. “And then we had everybody come down in the second half, we came down hard on them. They didn’t have the legs and we took advantage.”
While the scoring is nice, Hannah Lopez said the team’s aggressive nature on the other end really gets the team going.
“I think we have a very good, fast and enduranced defense,” she said. “I think we’re good at getting back and rebounding. When we saw how the size difference was between us and them, the first thing for us was to run them down. And after the first half, we were getting back, and rebounding our own shots and rebounding theirs, too. I think our speed and our stamina really helped us, too.”
Hannah Lopez was a major contributor throughout the season on both ends of the floor and provided another scoring option, especially when her defense was on point.
“You have her up on defense, she gets the majority of her points off of defense,” Jesse Boies said.” And she is a big shooter, too.”
Hannah Lopez said she enjoys clamping down on defense and drilling timely 3-pointers.
“I think it sparks me and how it makes my confidence go a little higher, but I think it sparks the team, too,” she said. “It gets the bench going and gets everyone else going. So I think it’s more of a team effort.”