Saturday’s final game of the Al Armendariz tournament for the Española Valley Lady Sundevils may have just been the third game in a young season, but it could prove to be a pivotal turning point moving forward.
After suffering a 50-35 defeat in the opening round to Class 5A’s Cleveland Nov. 29, Española rebounded Nov. 30 with a 43-36 win over a stout Class 2A team in Pecos.
It was what they did in their final game against Grants Dec. 1 is what has first-year head coach Joe Estrada excited about the results of the tournament as a whole.
Trailing by 13 points at halftime and as many by 18 in the third quarter against the Lady Pirates, The Lady Sundevils stormed back to grab a 50-45 win to walk away from Edward A. Ortiz Memorial Gymnasium above .500 with a 2-1 record.
“I can’t tell you that it was magic words (that I told them) but we finally found our intensity (in the second half),” Estrada said. “We relaxed, suddenly got some smiles on our faces and we started believing and that was huge for us. Games like this sometimes make a team and hopefully this is a major turning point for us right now.”
All the hard work to comeback was a result from the opening quarter, where the Lady Sundevils only scored three total points compared to Bernalillo’s 12.
During the uphill climb, Kaylee Chavez scored 10 of her game-high 16 points in the second half and Anita DeAguero chipped in eight of her 10 total points.
“We found a combination of girls that play hard all the way through and Grants, everything they threw up they made in that first half,” Estrada said. “Part of that was, we weren’t putting any pressure on them.”
One big takeaway for the tournament Estrada said was the team’s theme to come out flat in all three games.
“Part of it is, I think they were nervous,” he said. “I’m new, they’re new and it was a new experience for all of us. Nervousness was a little bit of a natural thing, but we saw what happened when we relaxed.”
The Lady Sundevils will take what they learned in three days at Armendariz and try to continue to build the momentum in their away contest Dec. 4 at Miyamura in Gallup before returning home to host Clovis Saturday.
“I couldn’t be happier (about the weekend),” Estrada said in conclusion. “Of course, we would have liked to play in the afternoon rounds and the championship, but that’s not what it is about right now. It’s about us getting better, getting to know each other and believing in the system and I definitely think that happened for us, no doubt.”