Lady Aztecs Comeback, Beat Eastwood 47-44
By Samuel Guzman III
The Lady Aztecs hosted the Eastwood Troopers Tuesday night at the temple, looking to get back on track after losing to the Andress Eagles 41-35 last week. The Troopers were coming into the Temple with a seven-game win streak and a real desire to secure a historic 400th win for head coach Endi Vargas. The Lady Aztecs were in for quite the battle.
The first quarter was a balanced showing by both teams. Both teams had a high tendency to score on the inside, instead of taking shots from a distance. Junior Ebonie Ballesteros had eight of her 15 points in the first quarter, which helped the Aztecs get out with a score of 13-13.
The team started to encounter problems with their offense in the second quarter. The offense was not working the way Head Coach Ty Burns drew it out. Not only were they struggling to get the offense going, but they were also getting outrebounded by the Troopers, which led them to fall into a seven-point deficit going into the half.
The Aztecs came back fighting after the half, but were still trying to catch up to the Troopers. The Troopers outscored the Aztecs 11-8 in the third quarter. Momentum went downward when junior Rebecca Davila took a nasty spill on her back causing her to leave for the remainder of the quarter.
The fourth quarter came and the Lady Aztecs were down 36-26. It was a shocker when Rebecca Davila checked in to try and finish the game.
“I thought I was out, but I saw that my team was struggling so I knew I had come back in,” said Davila. “I had to force myself, so that way I could help and we could pull off the win.”
Momentum shifted in favor of the Aztecs when Ballesteros leaped out from nowhere to grab an offensive rebound and kick it back to Davila to hit a three-pointer. Davila had eleven out of her 16 points in the fourth quarter alone. The Lady Aztecs tied the game up at 42-42 with a huge three-pointer by junior Kayley Diaz with 1:53 left in the game.
“I got the chills, but I went back to defense because I still had to put pressure,” Diaz said.
The Aztecs then forced the Troopers into a turnover, resulting in Ballesteros getting fouled and going to the line. Ballesteros knocked down one of two free throws to give them the lead with 1:23 left in the game. After a missed shot from Eastwood’s Jazmine Saucedo, Davila came up with the rebound and was fouled and sent to the line. Davila ignored her pains and drained the free throws to put them up by three with 35 seconds left. The Troopers pulled within one point with two seconds left before having to take a very long shot that missed wide, resulting in the Lady Aztecs pulling off the comeback.
The team looks to use this win as big motivation to keep throughout the season. The next game will be against rival school Montwood at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9 in their gym.
