FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
SANTA MARIA — There may have been limited seating in the Santa Maria Middle School gymnasium, but the deafening crowd noise emanating from the small venue played a definitive roll in the outcome of the game.
Within the span of 10 seconds, the La Villa Lady Cardinals went through a roller coaster of emotions, but the Santa Maria Lady Cougars would not be denied and found a way to steal a 34-33 victory Friday evening. The win keeps their perfect 9-0 District 32-2A record intact.
“Santa Maria is a great team, but the one thing that we wanted to do in this little junior high gym was not let the crowd affect us,” said La Villa head coach Sam Rodriguez. “In the first half we didn’t let the crowd affect us and we played great. But it kept going down hill as the crowd became a factor and our girls lost their composure.”
With eight seconds remaining on the game clock, La Villa’s Ruby Mireles stepped up to the free-throw line and sank one of two that sent the visiting crowd into a frenzy and gave the Lady Cardinals a 33-32 lead.
But Santa Maria would not be denied. Having already rallied from a 15-point deficit, the Lady Cougars had one more play up their sleeves.
Lorena Ayala inbounded the ball to Gabby Gomez, who was near mid-court. She, in turn, looked up court and found teammate Andrea Aleman, who was behind the Lady Cardinal defense. Aleman attacked the basket and saw her layup attempt bounce off the rim and into the hands of La Villa’s Mireles.
But it was Santa Maria’s Lesly Garcia who saw an opportunity to steal the ball from Mireles and turn it into a game-winning layup. Garcia released the ball with .02 seconds and sent the Santa Maria faithful pouring onto the court.
“We knew it was going a tough game because La Villa is a tough team,” said Santa Maria head coach Sofia Garcia. “This time around they wanted to come at us and they did, they came at us hard and we weren’t ready for it.
“In the second half we made some adjustments, but we got into foul trouble and we couldn’t hit a shot. We had trouble from the free-throw line, but we stuck it out.”
Down by 14 points to start the second half, free-throws came in bunches for Santa Maria, but none went in. In the third period alone the Lady Cougars went 0 for 14 from the charity stripe and 4 for 34 for the contest.
However, the Lady Cardinals did not do much better, going 1 for 8 from the line in the third period, and 11 for 35 in the game.
For the Lady Cardinals, this was the game they needed to win to stay in the hunt for a share of the district title. After losing the first meeting between the two, a win would mean a share of the title heading into the playoffs.
Santa Maria holds its destiny in their hands and, barring an upset, might have just wrapped up the district title all for them selves.