RRHS girls advance to state semifinals

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE
 
Before every game of the girls state basketball tournament at the Santa Ana Star Center on Tuesday, they turned out the main lights and used a spotlight to introduce the starting lineups.

Once the last game of the day started, neither team played lights-out basketball. But the top-ranked Lady Rams outmuscled and outlasted Valley 58-55 in a quarterfinal game, avenging one of two losses RRHS sustained this year.

Rio Rancho, 27-2, will meet La Cueva in the semifinals Thursday at 1:15 p.m. Valley finished its season 20-11.

In their first meeting, a 55-50 on Jan. 15, RRHS was outscored 24-11 in the fourth quarter in sustaining its first loss of the season after winning 13 straight. For a while in the last period of the rematch it looked like it might be déjà vu all over again.

After trailing by as much as 14 points in the third quarter, Valley clawed within one point at 56-55 on Angel Reyes basket with 1:12 left in the game.

But Tracy Fosterling and eighth-grader Courtnie Latham each made a free throw in the final 46 seconds, and Megan Muniz preserved the victory in the final two seconds, first by tipping a pass out of bounds, leaving Valley only 1.3 seconds left to attempt a potential game-tying three-pointer, then blocking Angel Reyes’ final shot.

Rio Rancho beat La Cueva twice in the regular season – 65-55 on Nov. 25, the second game of the season, at La Cueva, and 61-52 at home on Dec. 13.

In facing La Cueva, which knocked out Gallup 50-47 in an afternoon quarterfinal game, Rio Rancho will be playing a team it has already defeated twice this year.

Nikki Ingram (21 points) and Taylor Tvede (12) combined for 2/3 of the Lady Bears’ points as La Cueva overcame a 34-26 deficit after three quarters.

Paulette Coffey was the only Gallup player in double figures with 12 points.

The other semifinal matches fellow District 1-5A competitor against Sandia. Cibola, which inflicted the other loss the Lady Rams suffered this season, eliminated Clovis 60-52 and Sandia stunned No. 2 seed Eldorado 59-46.

Cibola built up a 48-30 lead after three quarters and cruised home to the victory as four players scored in double figures: Amber Battle (14 points), Andi Buckel (12), Elyse Brewster (11) and Korina Chapman (10). Chapman also had 12 rebounds before fouling out as the Lady Cougars outrebounded Clovis 40-30.

Antiesha Brown had 20 points and Brittany Johnson 14 for Clovis.

Sandia trailed by as much as eight points in the third quarter before rallying to win. With the game tied 39-39, a foul and technical (that also counts as a personal) against Eldorado point guard Kya DeGermo disqualified her from the game with five fouls.

Sandia made three of the four resulting free throws to start a 15-0 run that put the game away as Sandia guard Jaleesa Russell took over. Russell scored 16 of her game-high 28 points in the final period.

Ebony Walker added 11 points and Elena Martinez 10 for Sandia. DeGarmo and Brittany Brown had 11 each for Eldorado.

WILL BE UPDATED WITH QUOTES, STATISTICS.