Magdalena’s Elia Cleveland finds her way to the basket.
Russell Huffman | El Defensor Chieftain

Coach Sara Sue Olney wants her team to start pulling the trigger more after watching Magdalena fall in a 47-45 heartbreaker against Reserve on Feb. 4 at home.

The Steers scrambled back from being 12 points down to tie it up at 45-45 as Jorianne Mirabal sank a pair of free throws with 22 seconds remaining, but the sophomore fouled out as she was forced to stop a Reserve player from scoring.

The move looked like a good one with a pair of missed free throws with 16.5 seconds remaining, but during her rebounding effort, Gerleanzy Ganadonegro drew her fifth foul and was also forced to the bench.

With its top two scorers sidelined, the Steers could not come up with a bucket to tie the game and fell to 2-4 in District 2-1A with four league games to play. Three of those games will come at home, and the district title is still up for grabs, with all teams having at least one loss.

“Literally, you could put all of our names in a Yahtzee cup, shake it up and throw it out, and it’ll change every time. I think we’ve got to get some wins at home. We can’t continue to lose at home, or we’re in trouble,” Olney said.

Streaky play has plagued the Steers this season, and youth has played a huge factor. You can only gain experience once you’ve played the kind of games Magdalena did against Reserve, and the Steers need to learn to pull the trigger.

“We have a hard time starting off our games. We can’t always continue to play catch up. We also don’t shoot the ball enough,” Olney said. “That’s still a hard thing for us — to get that concept that we’ve got to shoot the ball. I tell them we at least need to shoot 20 shots a half, at least. We can probably put up more.”

The two teams fought to a dead even 10-10 score after the first quarter, but Reserve pulled away with a 19-8 sprint in the second quarter and maintained that advantage after an 8-8 third period.

To their credit, the Steers refused to fold despite the foul numbers stacking up against them.

Post Kambree Montoya popped a three-pointer and made 4-of-5 shots at the free throw line as she drew fouls, denying Reserve the ball in the fourth quarter. Ganadonegro also hit from the outside while Aliza Apache, Irene Martinez and Mirabal teamed up for the Steers’ 18 points in the frame.

It wasn’t enough, as the Steers missed four charity shots that could have made the difference.

“We just got to get more comfortable with game situations and more relaxed when we get down instead of so uptight,” Olney said.

When it comes to effort, Onley isn’t finding any fault with her team.

“We still play aggressively, and I got plenty of bench players. Losing Gerleanzy in a crucial game like that hurts, but we’ve got enough people that can step in, you know, take that spot if need be, but we just got to be more consistent. We have these great spurts, and then we have these really low levels. We’ve just got to keep those levels to a minimum and keep the spurts a little bit more.”

Scoring

Ailiza Apache 4, Jena Ganadonegro 8, Elia Cleveland 5, Irene Martinez 4, Kambree Montoya 10, Jorianne Mirabal 7, Kaydence LaTasa 2, Gerleanzy Ganadonegro 5.

Russell Huffman | Assistant Editor