Logan, Melrose face off for girls title

PORTALES — Melrose’s girls basketball team, a Class A state runner-up the past two seasons, has designs on returning to the state title game and winning it this year.

To that end, tournaments like the one offered by the Eastern Plains Athletic Conference supplies a good test for the Lady Buffaloes against quality small-school programs.

So, the fact that Melrose was already EPAC’s top seed heading into Friday night’s semifinal against four-time defending champion Texico at Greyhound Arena, and the fact that the Lady Buffs won that semi by a convincing 51-33 score, may bode well for their chances in March.

They expect to be a confident team when state-tournament play begins in two months, at least as confident as they were after Friday’s decisive victory over a rebuilding but still-solid, fourth-seeded Texico team.

“It’s kind of redemption for us,” Melrose head coach Caleb King said. “Last year we made the final (against Texico) and lost, so we’re ready to get back there. It’s a good win, Texico’s a good team; they’ve won it the last four years. And we knocked ’em off in this one, so it’s a big moment for us.”

The Lady Buffaloes earned Friday’s semifinal victory — which improved them to 9-1 — with senior forward Brette DeVaney and junior guard/forward Anjalina Sanchez sidelined. So, there’s something else that could bode well for Melrose, being able to play effectively without key players.

As important as DeVaney and Sanchez are to the Lady Buffs, they were certainly able to soldier on Friday with the players they had available.

“I think we played really good, actually,” Melrose senior guard Nataley Mondragon said after tossing in a game-high 22 points. “Missing two players, that really got us set back a little bit, but it also gave us motivation to play for them. Even though we’re down two players doesn’t mean we’re going to play worse. So I think we did good, we did good as a team. And I’m very proud of it.”

There was much to be proud of, considering Melrose trailed for most of the first quarter. It was 7-4 Texico when Hailey Martin collected a steal and drove for a layup, and after Mondragon did the same, she gave the Lady Buffaloes their first lead of the night, 8-7, late in the period.

A Melissa Lewallen free throw with 1:25 left in the first quarter tied the game at 8, which was still the score at quarter’s end.

The game was tied 12-all early in the second and Texico had the ball, but Mondragon came up with another steal and layup combo which, as it turned out, gave Melrose the lead for good. Mondragon’s go-ahead basket was soon followed by a Martin hoop, and after a fast-break layup from Texico’s Ashley Hill narrowed the difference to 16-14, baskets by Johanna Roybal and Mondragon, and a steal and layup from Isabelle Sena, put Melrose up 22-14.

It was 23-16 late in the period when Mondragon buried the first of her three treys, sending Melrose into halftime with a double-digit lead. And it was never single digits again.

Shannon May scored inside to make it a 28-16 game early in the third quarter, and after a Hill putback, Melrose scored seven straight points — a Sena free throw, Mondragon’s second trey, and a three from Roybal — stretching the Lady Buffaloes’ advantage to 35-18.

They led by as many as 27 in the fourth quarter before winning by 18. Quite a transformation from what had been such a tight game in the second period.

“I think we did a good job of ball pressure,” King said. “It was our defense; our defense came out and got hyped up.”

“Their pressure got to us, started hurting us, and we made a few mistakes,” Texico head coach Richard Luscombe said. “We’re pretty young at the guard spot. We got a little bit flustered; their experience kind of got to us a little bit.”

Call Melrose and Texico a tale of two towns girls-basketball-wise right now. The Lady Buffaloes on one hand have just about everything working for them.

“The way we’re playing against good teams, how we can beat ’em by a lot of points, that really shows how good we can be,” Mondragon said.

Texico, hovering near .500, is a team that needs to keep gaining experience, and get healthy too, while it looks to improve. And improving isn’t easy in a tournament like EPAC, even though being 2A makes Texico a bigger school than its opponents.

“We’re still playing, I think possibly, three or four of the top teams of that class (A) in this tournament,” Luscombe said. “This is a really good tournament, the field is as good as it’s ever been.”

Logan’s run

Earlier in the night, second-seeded Logan was first to grab a spot in the championship game by beating third-seeded Fort Sumner 48-33 at Greyhound Arena.

Logan head coach Glynna Strand thought Friday’s EPAC semifinal victory was a nice way for her team to shake off some more holiday rust.

“We are not quite back to ourselves since Christmas break,” Strand said, “and we’re slowly working our way there.”

The Lady Longhorns had a 33-21 lead at the end of Friday’s third quarter, and were up 36-23 in the fourth before a Fort Sumner run shaved the margin to just 37-29. The Vixens’ Kaycee Sultemeier almost came up with a steal that would have given her team a chance to close to within five or six, but she was on the end line and ruled out of bounds.

Shortly after the ensuing inbounds pass, Logan’s Karli Webb was free for a left-corner trey attempt, and she knocked it down to give the Lady Longhorns a 40-29 advantage. It was the start of an 11-4 Logan run to end the game.

“It was a good shot,” Strand said of Webb’s crucial three. “She’s a good shot-maker. It was important, that shot.”

And largely as a result of that shot quelling Fort Sumner’s momentum, the Lady Longhorns came into Saturday with only one challenge standing between them and an EPAC title.

“It’s always great to get there (in the championship game),” Strand said. “It’s always good to have a shot at that (title).”

In consolation-bracket girls games on Friday:

Tatum 50, Dora 42 — Junior Ashlyn Slover scored 13 of her 20 points in the first half and senior Taylor Graham added 11 points as Tatum (7-6) took control after trailing 9-8 at the quarter.

Senior Randi Crandall matched Slover for game honors with 20 points for Dora (3-8).

Floyd 60, Elida 36 — The Lady Broncos used a 24-point second quarter to stretch a two-point lead to 15 at halftime.

Freshman Catelyn Breshears and senior Anahi Chavez each had 18 points for Floyd (2-9), with Breshears getting 16 of hers in the first half and Chavez scoring 10 in the final period. Junior Maislyn Ferguson had 19 points for the Lady Tigers (1-11), 13 of them coming before halftime.