By: Alana LeBlanc
La Cueva’s girls basketball team, which just earned another trip to the state tournament, has had an outstanding season so far with an overall record of 21-7 and district mark of 8-2.
At the beginning of the season La Cueva ended Volcano Vista’s 46-game win streak and they didn’t stop there. La Cueva also recently beat Farmington (36-35), but it has not been easy for this team.
La Cueva head coach Marisa Cogan considers Farmington the Bears toughest competition. “I feel like they play really similar to us, they just have that confidence,” Cogan said. “We play a little bit nervous and scared against them, and they match up well against us.”
Senior Karleigh Gutierrez said, “It’s between Hobbs and Farmington. They’re so consistent in what they do, we need to make sure we’re on our A game, and we play consistent defense, consistent offense. They’ll eat you up if you have a hole in something so we just need to stay on top of our game.”
La Cueva found that consistency in its Feb. 25 win at Farmington. The Bears start state-tournament play against Mayfield at 6 p.m. Friday (March 3) in their home gym.
This year the team has had to overcome some difficulties. They temporarily lost junior Eva Love due to an injury. Cogan said, “I told the team, Eva Love was a band-aid for us before we would make a lot of mistakes and she would just fix them for us. Not having her out on the court exposed our weaknesses which we were able to notice and improve on. Now that she is back we are even better.”
Freshman Jordyn Dyer, the team’s leading scorer, has received a lot of attention, especially from “Inside the 505 Podcast” and “Prep Girls Hoops New Mexico.” On being the team’s only freshman, she said, “My teammates are very supportive of me, it’s just so cool for me and I love it. I of course wish that I had my other teammates that were freshmen with me, but it’s an amazing experience and I’ll be able to have it for 4 years.” Dyer has worked extremely hard and has led the team. So far Dyer has had a total of 342 points. Dyer, whose brother Cam starts for the boys team, has also won “Player of the Game” multiple times.
Dyer said that her dad has inspired her the most: “My dad is a really hard worker and he has always told me that no matter what you do, you have to work hard to excel. He has definitely helped show me to work hard no matter what.”
Gutierrez, a senior, had advice for her younger teammates: “Give it your all and be somebody that you want someone to look up to. I remember when I was young, having these older girls meant everything to me and if you’re setting a good example, you can inspire so many people that you don’t even know. Keep working hard and be a positive leader, even when you feel like you’re not a leader, somebody looks up to you. Keep your morals in check and stay humble.”
So far Gutierrez is not sure if she will continue her basketball career in college. “Everything is kind of up in the air,” she said. “I have a lot of decisions to make.”
Gutierrez said so far the team's greatest accomplishment was “getting new chemistry built, we have so much potential individually and it was really important for us to bring that together as a team. It has helped us build our confidence as a team, we have worked so hard as a team channeling that potential.”