Purple reign: Elida wins 3rd straight title

ALBUQUERQUE — It may not seem like it, but the Elida girls basketball team feels as if it's had a large target on its collective back.

Those things happen when you've won three state championships in a row.

CMI correspondent photo: Joshua Lucero

Elida Tiger Marily Varela puts up two points over Corona Cardinal Allysanne Huey during the second half of the Elida Tigers state championship game against the Corona Cardinals Friday afternoon in Albuquerque at The Pit.

The Lady Tigers made it look easy again on Friday, mauling Corona 63-27 for their third Class B girls title since the grouping came into effect in the NMAA in 2010-11.

"There's always somebody coming up to challenge you," Elida coach Dan Howard said. "When you're No. 1, everybody wants to knock you off."

Thing is, Elida had already beaten — in many cases, destroyed — most of the top teams in the class during the regular season. That includes Corona, the second seed, which lost at Elida 60-24 in January.

And the Lady Tigers may not be done. They graduate only two players — Reda Allison and Shealton Veo-Chenault.

Sophomore guard Marily Varela had 19 points and four assists for the Lady Tigers (24-6), who haven't lost to a Class B team in three years. Elida shot 49 percent (26-of-53) and forced the Lady Cardinals into 34 turnovers.

The players, though, admitted almost as much to relief as joy.

"Everybody's gunning for you," said junior Hunter Haley, who went 6-for-7 from the floor for 13 points and added three assists. "You can't let down."

The Lady Cardinals (22-4) had two early leads, but trailing 6-4 lost one of their top players, senior Kelly Gensler, to what was believed to be a significant knee injury.

Corona hung around for most of the half, trailing 23-15 before the Lady Tigers ran off the final three points of the second period and 22 of the first 24 in the third.

"(Losing) Kelly hurt," Corona coach Nicky Huey said. "We lost our focus in the third quarter, but we definitely lost focus when Kelly went down. We felt like she was going to have a good game."

In last year's final, the Lady Tigers had a comfortable halftime lead before watching Corona make a push. In the end, Elida won 59-41.

"That was in the back of our minds," Howard said, referring to Elida's third-quarter eruption in this one. "We were bound and determined not to let it happen again."

Senior Allysanne Huey, the coach's niece, finished with a team-high eight points for Corona. Coach Huey said it's the first time in school history, covering about 70 years, that either the Corona boys or girls had made a state final in back-to-back seasons.

"We didn't have anybody who had an above-average game today," he said. "But Elida makes a lot of teams have that problem."