Magdalena teams shut down top-ranked Cliff teams

The Magdalena basketball teams wrapped up their regular seasons with home games against district opponents Cliff and Reserve this past week. On Tuesday, Feb. 17, the Steers beat the Reserve Mountaineers 63-28 and the Magdalena girls beat the Reserve girls 64-32.

The Feb. 17 games were also the Senior Night games for the Magdalena varsity teams. Seniors honored for the girls team were #2 Jema Ganadonegro and #5 Elia Cleveland. The five seniors on the boys team are #13 Shane Montoya, #15 Ky Stephens, #22 Matthew Lopez, #23 Michael Young and #30 Noah Guerro.  Madi Lopez, Belem Villa-Molina, Julie Lower and Isibeal McFadden of the cheer team were recognized, as were girls' team manager Jayden Piasso and boy's team manager Tristan Alvarez.

Magdalena girls' defense upsets Cliff

The Magdalena girls’ basketball team is still fighting hard in a very competitive district. They suffered a tough loss to their district’s second place Lady Eagles in Quemado on Feb. 10.

“We've had a rough week. We started off rough. We went to Quemado, didn't play our best. We haven't played against them correctly yet. But we also had to move on, because we had Cliff today, and Cliff is right now, the number one or the number two team in the state,” Head Coach Sara Sue Olney said.

Magdalena lost a road game against Cliff by only one point a few weeks ago, 42-41 on Jan. 24. They knew what they needed to do to beat the Cliff Cowgirls, and they worked on that in practices. This time, the Magdalena girls controlled the mostly defensive game and won the season rematch on Feb. 12 by a large margin, 35-24.

“We focused in practice on defense. When we play defense, everything else falls into place. And I think we came back tonight and played like we played at the beginning of the year, and worried about nothing else but getting after it on the defensive end. And it ended up working out the way we needed it to,” Olney said.

#5 Elia Cleveland scored nine points in the game. Three Magdalena girls contributed six points in that win: #1 Brooke Anderson, #2 Jema Ganadonegro and #10 Nikole Torres.

“Cliff is a tough team, and we stuck with them, we just had to communicate. It was our defense that was needed…and we fixed that at practice. We played together and had fun, and we took the win. I'm just proud of my team,” Ganadonegro said.

Seniors Ganadonegro and Cleveland are playing especially hard, and smart, as they look to extend their final season of high school basketball as far as possible. Magdalena needed this win against Cliff to stay competitive in their district, and they’ll take what they learned from that game into the district playoffs where they are likely to face Cliff and/or Quemado again.

“I feel like our pressure…all the way through the backcourt worked so well. We usually depend on threes, but this time, we got so many paint touches, free throws, and that's what kept us in the game and kept us up,” Cleveland said. 

Cleveland said it’s a little sad seeing the end of the regular season and so few games remaining, but the girls feel confident that they can compete with Quemado and Cliff if they continue to stay together as a team, communicate and play aggressively. 

“I feel like we'll keep up with them, but in the end, I think it'll be a tough battle between both teams, and who wants it more, and if we want it more, I think we could keep up.” Cleveland said.

The Magdalena girls are now 21-5 overall for the season, and third in their very competitive district at 5-3. Quemado is second and Cliff is still first place.

“I'm proud of them, that they bounced back and realized it's almost over. So, we're just gonna go and see how far we can make it and enjoy the ride while we go.” Olney said.

Magdalena boys beat Cliff to take first place

The Steers finished up their regular season with seven straight wins. The last time they lost was against the Cowboys at Cliff, a close 43-38 loss. Playing to their homecourt advantage versus the Cliff Cowboys on Thursday, Feb. 12, was a whole different ballgame though.

“We knew that we could beat them. We just came out with energy,” #21 Kanaan Stephens said.

Kanaan Stephens, a sophomore, had 17 points on the night, including the first 11 points for the team. #20 JW Hunter, a freshman, scored seven points as the younger players hustled to keep the pressure. 

“Yeah, I just took what they gave me. I saw some lanes to the basket. Got some steals,” Kanaan Stephens said. “It wasn't just me. It was a team effort. It was a whole team.”

#30 Noah Guerro was the top-scoring senior with two big 3-pointers and eight total points. The depth of the Steers team is one of their big strengths. Many players on the team can step up into different roles in different games as needed. 

“I feel like we all played good, we all stepped up,” #15 Ky Stephens said.

The playoff picture for Magdalena’s District 2 seems to be setting up a rematch between Magdalena and Cliff at some point down the road in the district playoffs. 

“Well, we'll just have to come out with energy again, and probably end up about the same if we do that,” Kanaan Stephens said.

The big 49-34 win moved the Steers up to first place in the district while the Cowboys were bumped down to second place. Kanaan’s older brother Ky Stephens said “Oh yeah” with confidence about a likely rematch with Cliff later on this season. Other players shared the excitement and enthusiasm about this big win.

“It felt good. I love beating Cliff.” #13 Shane Montoya said.

The Steers finished with a 16-9 overall record for the season and a first place 7-1 record in their district.

Magdalena basketball upcoming games:

2/20 JV girls & boys at home for Magdalena JV Tournament.

2/23-28 District Tournament.

3/06 V Girls First Round State. 

3/07 V Boys First Round State. 

3/11-14 State Championship.