Last year, Senior forward Maricela MacAuley and her younger sister Analise ran the show for Peñasco.
Well, that may be an oversimplification — fellow senior Martina Tafoya also averaged 12 points per game, and Rochelle Lopez was a major contributor as an eighth-grader.
Still, when Maricela graduated in 2022, it left a big load to shoulder for Analise as the team’s central big, forcing them to play a different style with just one of the two bigs.
“It’s just me now, like, I have to do what I have to do,” Analise said. “And I don’t rely on other people.”
“In my sense, (Analise) is the best post in the state,” Peñasco coach Mandy Montoya said.
But after a rocky start to the season, the Panthers (7-6) came out strong at the Northern Rio Grande Tournament, nearly knocking off Mesa Vista and ultimately taking third place at the tournament for the second straight year.
The younger MacAuley has thrived, averaging 15 points per game, and her 10.1 rebounds is eighth in New Mexico. The sophomore’s eight double-doubles is fourth-best.
“We’re just getting better and better as the season goes by,” she said.
The Panthers are battle tested as they look to return to the state semifinals, facing a tough schedule of big schools and top 2A teams. Though they lost more games than they would have liked in the first half of the season, battling illnesses sweeping the team, that is all in the rearview mirror for Montoya.
“I’m the AD, so I schedule it that way on purpose,” Montoya said. “Rankings don’t matter. It’s who is the last team dancing in March.”
Escalante (8-5) entered the tournament as the top-ranked 2A team in the most recent coaches’ poll. In the third-place game, they took an early lead, but Peñasco fought back and led by six at the end of the first quarter, and by 10 late in the first half. But Escalante made a run of 11 straight points when Peñasco went cold from the field, and took a lead in the third quarter.
Outside of that one stretch, however, the Lady Lobos’ offense was largely nowhere to be found. Escalante scored just six points in the third quarter to Peñasco’s 12, and lost by nine. Lopez led the team with 17 total points.
The Panthers had a hard-fought battle in the first round against Pecos (7-6), who went on to easily win the consolation bracket.
In the battle of Panthers, it was Pecos who led 14-5 early on, hot at the 3-point line. A huge third-quarter run by Peñasco shifted from being down seven points to up seven, and was ultimately a 20-4 run. Pecos led in the final minutes, but Alyssa Atencio hit a go-ahead 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds to give Peñasco the win. MacAuley’s 16 points and Alexuis Romero’s 14 rebounds led the way.
MacAuley scored another 16 points, and recorded her eighth double-double of the season, as the Panthers battled to the last second in a three-point loss to eventual tournament champion Mesa Vista (see: Lady Trojans Stay Undefeated at NRG for more on that game).
“We played a hell of a game, there’s nothing to hang our head about,” Montoya said. “We were resilient, and we battled. Now, everybody knows that we are for real.”
Escalante put up a disappointing performance in the semifinal, losing 56-42 to Dulce (11-5). Cipriana Garcia was a small bright spot, with 15 points on five 3-point makes, and Brycelyn Martinez scored 19 points.
“Disappointed in ourselves and the team,” Garcia said after that game.
First-year coach Bryan Gonzales attributed the loss to missed shots.
“We played good defensively, but we had an off-night shooting,” Gonzales said.
But while that was certainly true in the first quarter and part of the second — when several attempts from the field were set up well, but missed by inches — by the second half Escalante struggled to get good looks as they fell further behind.
Escalante was down by 11 points at halftime, and never recovered. They trailed by 21 points at one point in the fourth quarter.
A year ago, the Lady Lobos tallied 240 points — 80 per game — as they dominated the competition at NRG. This year, despite returning four starters and most of the bench from that team, they only managed 140 — an average of just 46.7 points.
They had no trouble in the first round against Questa (5-8), winning 56-25, with star players Emma Maestas, Garcia and Brycelyn Martinez all reaching double figures.
Still, despite the recent slump, the Lady Lobos have some other strong wins so far, including over Bloomfield (8-3 in 4A), Thoreau (10-3 in 3A) and Tohatchi (6-6, top-five ranking in 3A). They still easily have the potential to be a top team if they can settle in to Gonzales’s offensive system.
Escalante hosted Cuba (2-8) after press deadline on Tuesday, and plays Sanford, Colo. (4-4) on Saturday before starting district play.