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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Pintos Lose by a Nose

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
    RIO RANCHO— It was, simply put, a great game.
    "It was like two heavyweights in a ring slugging it out," Kirtland Central coach Charles Kromer said of his Broncos' 64-56 win over Moriarty in the state Class 4A girls high school semifinals on March 13. "The two Valencia girls are just remarkable."
    Lady Pinto Kristin Valencia, a 5-foot-9 junior, scored a team-high 15 points in the losing effort at the Santa Ana Star Center. Her twin sister, Brandi, was right behind her with 14 points.
    The siblings led Moriarty in rebounds, eight apiece, and assists, three each. Kristin was the pacesetter in blocks (three) and steals (three).
    "It's very disappointing," Pintos coach Joe Bailey said. "But we had a great year, and we set the school record for number of wins."
    Kristin Valencia and three of her fellow Pintos— Desireé Godinez, Hilliary Sheckler and Jacki Bailey— crisscrossed their arms while they tightly clasped their adjacent teammates' hands in the postgame interview room. The seniors, Bailey and Sheckler, valiantly tried, but sometimes failed, to check their tears.
    "We had a good team," said Bailey, a 5-8 Pintos off-guard. "We always played as a team."
    Then, with a catch in her throat, she added: "I think they'll win it next year."
    Moriarty was eliminated one game short of the state-title contest. The Pintos had departed the big dance after the quarterfinals the past two seasons.
    Kirtland's key to victory was Dayon Hall-Jones. The 5-2 point guard nearly single-handedly offset the Valencias' production with a game-high 28 points, including a 14-of-14 performance from the free-throw line.
    But the Bronco was conspicuously absent when she failed to immediately reappear after halftime. She didn't come back in the game until the 4:49 mark of the third quarter.
    "I was happy," Bailey replied with a wry smile when asked whether Hall-Jones' temporary departure was a motivating factor.
    Kromer explained.
    "The reason she came out late is because we got her an IV," the coach said regarding his player being intravenously injected with fluids during the break. "She has the flu. The doc says we need to get her in bed right away now so she can play in the title game (the next day)."
    Hall-Jones, as Kromer spoke, swept into the room and flopped into a chair. Putting her hand over her mouth, she expelled a rich cough.
    "It (the IV) gave me a lot of energy in the second half," she said. "But when I first came back, I saw the score (with the Pintos holding a 34-33 lead), and I said, 'Oh no.' I just didn't want to lose that game. It's my senior year."
    Still, when the Pintos are on a roll they can be hard to stop. Moriarty, despite Hall-Jones being on the floor, proceeded to amass a 7-point lead, its biggest of the game at 42-35. Kristin Valencia scored on a pullup jumper with 1:30 to go in the period.
    At the third's conclusion, the Pintos had a 44-40 lead. But the advantage evaporated in the fourth quarter.
    "We told Dayon, 'Just go to the hole,' '' her coach said.
    Hall-Jones hit two pairs of free throws with 7:41 and 7:07 left and scored on a jumper— her levitating feet were near Kristin Valencia's waist at the shot's apex— at 6:25 to retake the lead at 46-44. Then, after Kristin Valencia tied it at 46, Hall-Jones' dribble-drive bucket with 5 minutes left gave Kirtland the lead for good.
    Assorted Pintos tried to guard Hall-Jones. But even Godinez, who did the best job of anybody, couldn't quite handle KC's star player.
    Moriarty's 5-1 junior guard had quick feet, and her eyes never strayed from their riveted focus on the speedy Bronco's belt line.
    "She was the one scoring for them," Godinez said. "I had to chase her. I couldn't let her get the ball. I had to stay with her. That's what I was trying to do."
    Brandi Valencia got Moriarty to within one, 54-53 at 2:09, when she sank a contested jumper. The bucket was successful despite the Pinto being fouled by two defenders without a whistle.
    But after Godinez was penalized for a flagrant foul— the official crossed his arms for the intentional signal with 39.7 seconds left— Hall-Jones sank the free throws for a 58-53 lead.
    The Pintos then had to resort to fouling, and the Broncos pulled away for an 11-point spread with 9 seconds left.
    Brandi Valencia canned a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc with about 3 seconds on the clock for the final score.
    Moriarty led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter. Bailey hurled a buzzer-beating trey from the hinterlands, launched at least 5 feet from the far side of half court.
    "It should have counted as 10 points," Joe Bailey said.
    Neither Valencia fouled out, a pregame concern. But Brandi was assessed her second foul with 4:53 left in the first quarter and sat on the bench until about 5:36 in the second period.
    If there was one factor, besides Hall-Jones, that could be classified as the difference in the game, it was free throws. Kirtland was 34-of-41 (82.9 percent) from the charity stripe, while the Pintos were 18-of-30 (60 percent).
    "At the beginning of the year, I said three teams had a chance— St. Pius, Kirtland and us." Joe Bailey said. "And that's the way it ended up."
    Besides the Valencias, the Pintos' scorers were Alex Lehocky and Jordan Russell with eight apiece, Jacki Bailey with six and Megan Bond had five. Juniors produced all of Moriarty's points, except Bailey's six.
    "We'll still have a lot of good players returning next year— like Desireé," Kristin Valencia said as she put her arm around Godinez. "I think we'll have a good team."
    Kirtland (27-4), the top seed, subsequently fell 57-48 to No. 2 St. Pius X (28-2) in the 4A finals Friday at the University of New Mexico's Pit. Moriarty (24-5) was the fourth seed.
    "We'll have a great team next year," Joe Bailey said. "I expect us to win a state championship. And Hilliary and Jacki will be the first ones to give us a hug after the game."