Pueblo West coach Gil Lucero speaks with his team during a timeout on Tuesday. (Tracy Renck/CHSAANow.com)
PUEBLO WEST — This game went from domination to disaster for the Pueblo West girls basketball team, ranked No. 5 in the latest Class 4A CHSAANow.com poll.
However, just when it appeared No. 4 Pueblo East was going to make a frantic comeback from trailing by 17 points with nine minutes remaining, Haley Simental saved the day for the Cyclones on Tuesday night.
The West senior made all six of her free throws in the final 77 seconds, vaulting the Cyclones to a 61-54 victory over the Eagles in the South-Central League opener for both teams at Jerry Kersey Gym.
“I just knew I had to make them,” Simental said. “I know clutch free throws will win games a lot of times and I went up there calm and knocked them down.”
The Cyclones improved to 9-4 on the season, while East dropped to 9-4 after losing its second-consecutive game.
“Haley’s our team leader and she’s the one who wants the ball in her hands,” West coach Gil Lucero said. “She has worked since she could pick up a basketball for those moments and that’s why we had the ball in her hands at that time and she came through.”
Simental, the team’s leading scorer at 21.4-points per game, was held scoreless in the first half, but ended up with 10 points, finishing 8-for-8 at the charity stripe.
For nearly 24 minutes, it looked like the last thing West would need was a hero in this game. The Cyclones had a commanding 49-32 edge with just over a minute left in the third quarter.
Then, things unraveled.
The Eagles came charging back and cut the Cyclones’ lead to 55-54 on Kayla Albo’s 3-pointer from the right side of the top of the key with 1:27 remaining in the game.
“Down the stretch, it was like the football thing when you start playing prevent defense,” Lucero said. “You start getting less aggressive and we lost our aggressive edge and that was the difference there. They got it close and we were hanging on, but we fought through it and were able to pull away. I don’t care if we win by one point or by 15 at this point, a win is a win.”
After Simental made her first two free throws, West had a 57-54 advantage at the 1:17 mark, and East proceeded to have back-to-back turnovers. The Eagles still trailed by the same score with 45 seconds on the clock, but Kassidi Day missed the front end of a 1-on-1 and Simental sealed the victory from that point.
“We got close and turned the ball over and then our girls just deflated because they spent all their energy making that comeback,” East coach Darren West said. “We have to find a way to play four quarters, that’s what I take from this game. We are two of the top teams in the state and we have a couple of quarters where were flat. We have to figure out a way to play all four quarters.”
The Eagles made the game plenty interesting, thanks a Jailen Minich’s 24 points, 16 of which came in the second half.
“We realized we didn’t want to be blown out of their gym and we stepped it up,” Minich, a junior guard said. “We started hitting our shots, and then we just didn’t have the extra push to get us over the top.”
West was paced scoring-wise by Shyanne DeVille (18 points) and Shannon Sanchez (14 points).
“This was huge win for us to beat a quality team like East,” Lucero said. “This should get our season going right now.”