The Pojoaque Valley High School girls basketball team had not won the Ben Lujan Tournament since 2008.
That season, the Elkettes went undefeated in 30 games and won the state championship.
This season, for the first time in nine years, they finished the tournament, played every December at the high school, with nothing but smiles, hoisting the first place trophy after a dominant win, Dec. 16, against West Las Vegas High School.
They won the championship game by a score of 52-39.
Already, Pojoaque head coach Seledon Martinez is shaking off comparisons to that 2008-2009 state championship winning team.
“We can’t read anything like that into this,” he said. “It was just a tournament. Just one win.”
Ten games into the season, there is one aspect of this current Elkettes team that cannot match the historic team — they have a loss on their record, thanks to a Dec. 7 game against St. Pius X High School.
Throughout the Ben Lujan Tournament, though, they looked to be a team that could keep their loss tally to one.
They swept through every team they faced.
First, they beat Mesa Vista High School by 36 points, Dec. 14, then they had a 41-point victory over Mora High School, Dec. 15.
West Las Vegas was the sole team in the tournament that posed a threat to the Elkettes.
“We started off rocky, I know that,” sophomore Ashten Martinez said. “But, as we came together and composed ourselves, we came out with the win.”
For the whole of the first half, and the beginning of the second, the scoring was fairly even.
Pojoaque held a five-point cushion for the majority of the time, with the Lady Dons occasionally closing that gap.
Seledon Martinez attributed the tight start of the game to a bit of nervousness, which showed itself in needless fouls.
“You could tell we had the jitters to start off with,” he said. “We made some uncharacteristic errors that we shouldn’t have made … We can’t do those against good teams.”
When the fourth quarter hit, the Elkettes began to run away with the game.
They scored 10 points in the time that the Lady Dons scored two, pushing their small lead into one that was significantly more sizable.
They stepped away from their fast-paced style of play with the score at 48-35, and the clock with four minutes, 30 seconds left.
The Elkettes opted for a more possession-based style of play, knocking the ball around the perimeter, to waste time.
The tactic worked and they staved off any chance of a West Las Vegas comeback.
Three Pojoaque players scored in the double digits of the championship game — Michaela Martinez, Ashten Martinez and Adrianna Quintana.
West Las Vegas was the first district opponent the Elkettes have played so far, this season.
The Lady Dons have the third-best record of any team in the district, coming in behind Robertson High School and Pojoaque.
Robertson and Pojoaque have lost once this season, and they will not meet until Jan. 31.
Ashten Martinez likes her chances in the district, even against Robertson.
“I’m feeling confident, but we still have to work,” she said.