(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
PUEBLO — Pueblo West had a two-point lead in the final minute of overtime when Shanae Lontine got the ball right underneath the basket. No one was near her and at first, she looked like she was going to get her easiest two points of the night.
But she pull the ball out of the lane, opting to have her team hang on to it and run more clock. While confusion filled the Pueblo East gym, the tactic worked. The East was forced to foul and it was the Cyclones who came away with a 39-34 win Friday night.
“At that point, I wanted to bring the ball out and I didn’t want them to go back on offense,” Lontine said. “Once I realized I was wide open, the defense was even waiting for me to shoot it. But I guess it worked because I got fouled and made a free throw.”
She sank one of two and Hannah Simental found her way to the line shortly after to put the game out of reach for the CHSAANow.com No. 3-ranked Eagles (13-3 overall, 3-1 South Central).
But East had plenty of chances to take that game.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
The No. 6 Cyclones (13-3, 3-1) jumped out to an early 9-3 lead after the first quarter. Olivia Lough scored five of her game-high 15 points in that stretch and it looked like East was going to be outmatched all night.
They battled back to cut the West lead to three points at halftime and worked to refocus their efforts in the second half.
“I don’t think in the first half we ran any type of offense,” East coach Angelina Gorham said. “We came out after halftime and made some adjustments. We settled down and ran an offense and got good looks out of it.”
The Eagles were scrappy through the remainder of the game, never letting the Cyclones completely take control of the contest. But they could have snatched a fairly comfortable lead if they had better production from the free throw line.
East went 7-20 from the line, which proved to be a devastating stat as the clock ticked away in the fourth quarter.
Lough had gotten into foul trouble in the first half, dramatically cutting her production from what it was in the first quarter. But she scored the first basket of the fourth, even drawing a foul in the process. It looked like she was regaining her rhythm after being forced to the bench earlier.
“That is totally my fault,” Lough said. “That disrupted our rhythm because once I get in rhythm and once I started going and it gets broken up by fouls, sometimes we go through a cold streak and I’m not out there to help my team out.”
She was out there in the fourth, but ironically it was East who started finding its scoring rhythm. Kayla Also scored six straight points for the Eagles to cut the West lead to one. Salik Winston then scored to give East its first lead since it was 1-0.
Albo added another bucket to make it a 30-27 game. Lough was able to sink a free throw and Lontine scored under the rim to push it overtime.
“I thought if we had a chance to put it away, it should’ve been early in the game,” Cyclones coach Gil Lucero said. “We had a lot of momentum, we were getting some looks and I think we just got too excited and rushed too many things at the end.”
Albo got the lead right back for East, but the Cyclones went on a 9-2 run to end the game, sneaking out with a win.
“We also knew East was going to be scrappy, that’s what they do,” Lucero said. “We just feel lucky to get a win and get out of here.”