Española Valley girls basketball coach Ron Drake was supposed to miss the Lady Sundevils’ season-opener in order to have his gall bladder removed. Drake’s doctors decided he was too weak to have the operation so he was on the sidelines with cane in hand, for Española’s 62-52 loss to the Santa Fe Indian School Lady Braves Nov. 24 in Española.
Despite his condition and the beating that the Braves inflicted on the Sundevils, he was not discouraged as he slowly walked to the locker room after the game, sometimes steading himself on a nearby shoulder.
“I’m not disappointed,” Drake said. “They had some first game jitters and they had to get all of that out of the way.”
The Braves, who already had two games under their belt, blitzed the Sundevils in the first quarter to grab a 17-3 lead behind the scoring of Ohkay Owingeh’s April Abeyta and April Johnston. Abeyta had a pair of steals following Braves’ baskets that resulted in layups, and the signature full court pressure of the Braves created turnover after turnover.
Janine Coriz finished the first quarter by draining a pair of three-pointers, the second one coming at the buzzer, to give the Braves a 26-11 lead.
“We weren’t rotating on defense and contesting her shots,” Drake said.
With the crowd yelling “Come on Sundevils” and Drake, despite his weakened condition, berating them on the bench between quarters, the Sundevils came back in the second quarter.
Española slowly chipped away at the Braves lead and cut Indian School’s advantage to nine points at 41-32 after a three pointer by Melanie Vigil at the end of the first half.
“I told them they were a better team than that,” Drake said. “Their fans were here and they had to show some pride.”
In the third quarter, Abeyta bombed away and nailed a pair of three pointers that gave Indian School a 49-36 lead. With several players in foul trouble and sophomore post Lakeisha Padilla on the sidelines with an ankle injury, Indian School coach Cindy Roybal decided to take the air out of the ball and pull it out to the perimeter. A basket and a pair of free throws by Mariska Eloté gave Indian School a 55-38 lead. Española’s Nisa Duran led the Sundevils’ comeback by scoring the last seven points of the third quarter to cut the Braves’ lead to 55-45 heading into the fourth quarter.
Española cut the lead to eight points at 56-48 in the fourth quarter after a free throw by Megan Martinez, but Coriz sank a pair of free throws, added a layup after making a steal and scored on a drive to give the Braves a 62-50 lead.
Española couldn’t connect from the field, and the Braves held on for a 10-point victory.
Coriz led all scorers with 21 points and Abeyta added 19 for the Braves. Duran paced Española with 18 points and Martinez added 17.
Roybal, who had left the coaching ranks after resigning from Pojoaque after the 2005 season, is glad to be back at the helm of Indian School, where she started her coaching career in 1978. She later moved to the collegiate ranks at New Mexico Highlands University for 17 years before going to Pojoaque in 2002.
“I love being back with my original team,” she said. “We’ve had 10 practices and everything’s completely new to them. It’s going to take awhile before they understand.”
The Braves will battle the Pojoaque Elkettes, the defending Class AAA champions, in District 2AAA this season.
“If things go the way they should, there’s going to be four or five teams from our district at the state tournament,” she said.
Drake expects his team to be better once they have some games under their belt.
“We’ll be better by our third game.” he said.