Lady Steers more ready than ever for state

By Glen Rosales

For the Chieftain

When strolling onto opposing courts, the Magdalena girls basketball team may not be the most imposing sight, especially now that it is New Mexico state tournament time.

That, of course, matters not one bit when the teams hit the hard wood as the Steers have more than held their own this season.

“When you look at us, we do not match the eye test,” said coach Sara Sue Olney. “When we were walk into a gym, people are going to say, ‘Goodness, these guys are tiny.’ We’re not very big.”

But Magdalena has other characteristics going for it.

“We’re very feisty, we play hard and play fast,” she said. “We have to use our quickness to our advantage. We press a lot. Almost the whole game at times. Our defense, I feel like it takes over games. And that makes our offense flow.”

Olney expects the Steers’ offense to flow just fine when Elida visits Friday for the opening round of the tournament. The winner advances to the quarterfinals March 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Bernalillo High School against the winner between No. 4 Quemado and No. 13 Reserve.

“This time of the year, I’m not worried about the other team,” she said. “If we go out and execute, we can play with anybody. We work on what we do, fine tune things, get shots up. As we get a little closer, we’ll have a few more specifics on Elida, but we try not to get into the logistics. If we show up and play our game, we’ll do okay.”

While Magdalena depends on its defense, it features a strong offense led by senior Jorianna Mirabal, who is averaging 15.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, three assists and 4.1 steals per game.

Junior Jema Ganadonegro is putting up numbers nearly as gaudy with 13 points, 3.1 assists and 3.5 steals, while junior Elia Cleveland contributes 10.4 points, 2.6 assists and 3.5 steals.

“I’ve got what I call the big three,” Olney said of the trio. “They are our veterans and leaders on the team. They’ve carried us for the most part scoring wise.”

At 5-foot, 8-inches, sophomore Winona Apachito is by far the team’s tallest player, but she’s still figuring out how to use her length.

But that quickness that Olney loves had resulted in an outstanding 14 steals per game.

And teamwork also is key as the Steers averaged 11 assists per game.

Magdalena lost just one starter from last season, and most of the bench is back from last season, as well.

“I think it’s huge,” she said of having players experienced in playing at state. “I think for last year, it might have hurt a little bit. This year, we’re more ready for it than ever.”

That can be seen in the District 2-1A tournament when the Steers rallied to beat Cliff despite trailing with 20 seconds left, and then beating Quemado on the road after trailing for most of the second half.

“We figured out a way to get the win in somebody else’s gym,” Olney said. “A lot of that attests to being mentally prepared for what we need to do. We won’t be as wide eyed as we were last year.

What’s more, Magdalena has been riding last year’s disappointing one-point loss to Fort Sumner/House in the quarterfinals.

“We ended the season with a sour taste in the mouth as we just missed going to the semifinals by three points,” Olney said. I think we’ve held on to that all year long. We definitely came out with a chip on our shoulder. And we worked very hard to get where we’re at.”