Magdalena girls knock off No. 3 Cliff

The No. 5 Magdalena

girls knocked No. 3 Cliff

from the ranks of the Class

A unbeaten on Saturday

with a 45-43 win sparked

by a game-high 15 points

from Jema Ganadonegro

and 12 points from Elia

Cleveland. It was a crazy

game, and Magdalena never

trailed but had to dig in to

win at the end.

The Steers jumped to an

11-0 lead and looked like

they had Cliff on the ropes

with a 20-9 first-quarter

run, but the table was

turned in a four-point sec

ond quarter that closed the

score to 24-18 at halftime.

“Our district is good.

I don’t care what any

body says, we’ll probably

get four, possibly five

teams out of our district

in the state tournament,”

Magdalena coach Sara Sue

Olney said. “Everything

we’ve done to this point has

prepared us for this. So, we

have to trust that and never

stop playing. It’s never

going to be pretty. I mean,

we beat Animus by 30, but

even then, at halftime, they

were down by five. We

have to keep our cool, con

tinue to play our basketball

game, and then hope it pays

off in the end.”

It was a see-saw battle

in the second half, with

Magdalena maintaining

the edge 13-9 in the third

period, only to have Cliff

race back and nearly take it

at the end.

The Steers were called

several times for traveling,

and turnovers hurt their

efforts.

“There were some

things that weren’t charac

teristic for us today, and we

also haven’t seen pressure

like that, I guess you could

say we didn’t execute what

we usually execute very

well. I think there’s a lot of

emotion coming into this

game. Our girls pay atten

tion to polls, and they feel

shafted, and that’s okay.

It’s a good thing to hold on

to. There are lots of emo

tions and lots of energy,

and sometimes things don’t

Class A basketball’s

No. 7 Cliff (12-4) decided

to play a slow-down game

against No. 3 Magdalena

(15-4) on Saturday. The

Cowboys’ strategy back

fired as they played right

into the Steers’ hands for a

43-34 District 1-1A victory.

“That’s the funny part

(slow play) because that’s

who we are. If a team wants

to come in and say, oh, it’s

Magdalena, we’re going to

slow them down. Thank

you very much,” Steers

coach Jory Mirabal said.

“That’s what we’re trying

to do anyway. I feel like we

can play both speeds. When

you’re playing different

speeds, you have differ

ent types of outcomes, and

we’re not out here trying to

put 30 on everybody.”

Things may be a little

different on offense, but

the Steers’ defense is still

choking the life out of their

opponents’ offenses. The

Cowboys netted 15 points

through the first three quar

ters and were down 26-15.

“We’re about wins. I

don’t care if they’re one

point or 50 points. It doesn’t

matter to me. We’ll respect

every opponent that comes

in. What we need to try to

do is to get the W. That’s

what it’s about,” Mirabal

said.

The Cowboys were able

to open up their offensive

game a little in the fourth

quarter, but Cliff also had

to foul to try to get posses

sion, and the Steers’ Jack

Markland made them

n See Area, Page 10

go as planned. You have

to weather through the

storm,” Olney said.

Magdalena has two

home dates coming up for

fans to enjoy with a 5:30

p.m. game against Reserve

on Feb. 6 and a 1:30 p.m.

tipoff on Feb 8.

Scoring - Jema

Ganadonegro 15, Kali

Bruton 1, Elia Cleveland

12 , Nikole Torres, Winona

Apachito, Jorianne Mirabal

10, Falene Montoya, Ariella

Mexicano, Jewel Mirabal

7, Ali Dorn, Brooke

Anderson