No. 3 Steers improve to 10-2 on season

With three girls hitting double-figure scoring, No. 3 Magdalena handed Tularosa a 51-25 loss on Saturday and improved the Steers' record to 10-2.

After jumping out to a 16-3 lead, coach Sara Sue Olney started digging into her bench, and Magdalena stayed out front for a 22-ll lead at the half. With her team prone to the occasional third-quarter lull, Olney cracked the whip in the stanza, and the Steers didn't let up.

"That's something we've been trying to talk about in the last couple of games, and we addressed it at halftime: that we have to have better third quarters. Olney said. "We can't come out in this lull and just think that people are just going to lie down and give it to us. We've got to come out more aggressive. I think we come out at halftime a little more relaxed than we should, and so we've got to come out more aggressive and get after it."

Despite the halftime pep talk/warning, the Steers took a few minutes to bring their A-game into the second half.

"I think we started off slow and then realized, oh crap, this is exactly what we talked about. As long as we take care of those little lulls because we have them, I think in every quarter actually, where we don't score for a long period, as long as we address those and just take care of them, I think we'll be fine," Olney said.

The Steers are more than fine because they have been mixing it up with some of the state's top teams in preparation for what promises to be a highly competitive district. Magdalena has lost only twice, with those blemishes coming against Class 2A No. Texico and tough 47-40 road loss defending state champion Fort Sumner/House.

Magdalena had a 22-18 lead at halftime against Fort Sumner and it was 31-31 after three quarters before the Vixens went on a 16-9 run to finish it.

"Going into that game, we addressed the fact that it's honestly just another game. They beat us by seven. We were in control of the whole game, so things we learned from that game -- how to finish a game and how to not relax," Olney said.

The Steers can't afford to relax because they are 100 percent in the mix for a deep tournament run. They have to get the District 2-1A field of sharks, where Cliff (6-0), Quemado (9-2), and Animas (5-3) all have winning records. Reserve's 3-4 mark might lead some to overlook Mountaineers, but some of those losses have come at the hands of Dexter, Ruidoso, and Lordsburg.

Olney's proud of her team and even more proud of the effort her Steers give.

"I think we're, by far, one of the top three to four teams, in my opinion. Yes, I am biased, but nobody plays the way we play. It's not hard for me to say nobody works as hard as we do because I know how hard we work. That's not knocking teams that work hard, but I know how hard we work," Olney said.

Against Tularosa, Elia Cleveland (game-high 18 points) and Gema Ganadonegro (11) both rang up a pair of long-distance dialups. Jorianne Mirabal also hit from the outside, but the majority of her 13 points were scored in the paint. Jewel Mirabal added five points to the Steers' final tally, and Kali Bruton and Winona Apachito had two.

Scoring against Fort Sumner/House- Ganadonegro 10, Cleveland 9, Jorianne Mirabal 17, Jewel Mirabal 2