The official schedule would say the Lady Eagles snapped a two-game losing streak, but in all reality, an 18-game skid was finally put to rest.
The Northern New Mexico College womens basketball team had gone an exact 92 calender days between “official” victories dating back to their Oct. 25 season opening home win against the University of the Southwest.
Sprinkled in between 18 losses was two 2-0 forfeit wins over California State Miramar, but the Lady Eagles (4-18) got to taste a real victory again after a 77-38 thrashing of Oglala Lakota College Jan. 25 inside Eagle Memorial Gymnasium.
The Lady Eagles rode the hot shooting hand of Jazlynn Muñiz and the inside presence of Cheyenne Livingston and Katelyn Yuzos. The three players totaled 52 points and shot a combined 69 percent from the floor on 27-of-39 shooting.
Muñiz benefited from 4-of-5 makes from 3-point range to score 18 points, Yuzos totaled 14 and picked up nine rebounds and Livingston scored a game-high 20 points on 10-of-12 shooting.
“A win is a win for us and it feels good to do it at home,” Livingston said. “I think that we really wanted to just do that for him.”
When Livingston said him, she was referring to interim head coach Mario Caetano, who took over the coaching duties Dec. 5, 2018 for the departed Tony Gallegos, who accepted a non-coaching position at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos.
Caetano played basketball for Northern and later was an assistant to mens head coach Ryan Cordova on the 2014 Eagles team that made the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national tournament. He has since coached out of Las Vegas, Nev. for one of the top Amateur Athletic Union programs in the Vegas Elite Basketball Club playing on the competitive Nike Circuit.
Since taking over the prior four games before the Lakota matchup, Caetano said he sets four goals each outing and that his ladies were able to accomplish three of the four against the Lady Bravehearts.
“We had never done that,” Caetano said. “They really executed offensively and we could have run the score up more, but I wanted to just execute our offense and get better.”
The players did their part by scoring at least 20 points in three of the four quarters and they protected a 44-25 halftime lead by outscoring Lakota 33-14 in the second half.
The Lady Eagles converted on 8-of-17 3-pointers to shoot 47 percent from beyond the arch and the defensive limited the Lady Bravehearts to 31 percent shooting for the game and forced 12 turnovers.
“He’s (Caetano) brought a lot more focus on defense and conditioning,” Livingston said about her team’s new coach. “I think that’s really helped us and he expects us to be really disciplined.”
The only specific goal not achieved against Lakota was to hold the team under 35 points, but Caetano said implementing goals helps breakdown the game for his players and he believes they will perform at their best moving forward with that mindset.
“I don’t think we even ever won two goals since I got here,” he said. “So winning three goals, that shows them (how to) break the game out in portions and better understand what it takes to win.”
It may have been 18 losses in 92 days, but all it took was two days to officially start the first winning streak of the season as the Lady Eagles won in going-away-fashion against the Lady Bravehearts again Jan. 26, 87-37.
This time, Muñiz carried the way with 24 points, Yuzos had 17 points and 11 rebounds and Livingston recorded a double-double with 18 points and 11 boards.