No. 1 Monterey girls outlast No. 5 Lubbock-Cooper for Caprock Classic championship

WOLFFORTH — A friend of Monterey basketball coach Jill Schneider came to watch the Lady Plainsmen on Friday in case Aaliyah Chavez broke out a move she hadn't seen before.

Perhaps Saturday was the setting for that.

Monterey's dazzling sophomore point guard scored 36 points, leading the top-ranked Lady Plainsmen to a 71-63 victory against fifth-ranked Lubbock-Cooper in the large-school girls bracket championship game of the Caprock Classic. Monterey closed the game on a 16-7 run, and during that surge Chavez took the ball behind her back on a breakaway and finished with a crowd-pleasing basket.

"We've seen it before," Schneider said. "She does it in practice. She's done it in a game before. I had a friend last night come to the game and she told me that she just wanted to come to the game to see if Aaliyah did anything she hadn't seen her do yet. So if she was here tonight, she saw that."

Texas Tech commitment Kelly Mora scored 17 points and Jaelyn Morrison added 10 as Monterey (19-3) evened the season series with Cooper (17-5) in front of an energized full house at Frenship's Tiger Pit.

Calyn Dallas and Majik Esquivel scored 17 points apiece for the Lady Pirates, who had the Lady Plainsmen down 21-11 late in the first quarter and 56-55 midway through the fourth.

"With this team, before the season I think there was a lot of low expectations from everybody outside of our locker room," Cooper coach Kyle Lovorn said. "We've got a bunch of underdogs on our team. For us to be able to compete the way we did tonight — even the first game in district, we beat them.

"But tonight obviously was a little bit different atmosphere and a little bit different game, so to play the way that we did and compete like we did, I was super proud of our girls."

Two weeks ago in Woodrow, with Chavez and Esquivel both out, Cooper beat Monterey 74-71 in the first week of District 4-5A play. This time, both teams were at full strength and the Lady Pirates made the Lady Plainsmen earn it.

Monterey made a 25-6 run to turn the early 10-point deficit into a 36-27 lead. Chavez had 11 points during that burst, Mora and Morrison five each and Ari Johnson four.

And after back-to-back 3-point goals by Dallas with a little more than six minutes left in the game gave Cooper the 56-55 lead, the Lady Plainsmen were up to the challenge again.

Chavez put Monterey ahead for good, going into the lane for a basket that made it 57-56. Buckets by Mora and Morrison and Chavez's fancy finish increased the lead to 63-56.

"I think it's just a natural instinct," Chavez said of her behind-the-back move on the way to the hoop. "I've done that a couple of times, just from playing basketball so much, so I think it was just a natural instinct to do that."

Karlee Cronk stopped the 8-0 run by making one of two free throws, but Monterey kept going. A 3 by Morrison and another Chavez basket from the wing made it 68-57 with 1:27 to go.

Monterey won the Caprock tournament for the seventh time. Cooper, which won consecutive Caprock titles in 2017 and 2018, lost in the championship game for the second year in a row.

"They're the number-one team in the state, and they're legit. They're real," Lovorn said. "I was proud of our girls and how we battled with them."

It was the third title of the season for the Lady Plainsmen, who also won tournaments in Allen and in El Paso.

"I thought Cooper got off to a great start, and they did against us at Lubbock-Cooper also," Schneider said. "I think we showed some really great resilience as a team to come back, because it's tough when you spot a team 10 points. We battled back and put ourselves in a position to get back in the game and compete.

"I was just really proud of them, and I felt like we had different players step up really big for us at different times. I can't say enough about Kelly Mora played so smart after she picked up her second foul early. Whether she's scoring points or not we need her presence, we need her rebounding, and she showed the ability to do that and to exercise some discipline."

Chavez picked up her fourth foul with 2:24 left in the third quarter and the Lady Plainsmen leading 51-40. She went to the bench moments later, and Esquivel scored eight points in the last 2:20 of the period to draw Cooper back to 53-50.

Chavez came back to play the fourth quarter.

"She just is so big time," Schneider said. "She plays when pressure's on. She plays when the crowd gets into it like this. She plays through adversity. The fact that she's a sophomore and has the poise and the presence and the ability to make some of those big plays the way she does just astounds me.

"I caught her after the game and told her that she just never ceases to amaze me with the things that she can do and the basketball IQ that she possesses for such a young lady."

CAPROCK CLASSIC

Girls Large School Bracket

Championship

MONTEREY 71, LUBBOCK-COOPER 63

COOPER — North 3 1-1 8, Contreras 2 2-2 6, C. Dallas 6 1-2 17, Esquivel 6 1-2 17, Cortez 3 3-4 11, A. Dallas 0 0-0 0, Robertson 1 1-1 3, Erickson 0 0-2 0, Bullen 0 0-0 0, Cronk 0 1-2 1. Totals 21 10-16 63.

MONTEREY — Limon 0 0-0 0, Morrison 4 0-0 10, Mora 8 1-1 17, Cole 0 2-4 2, Chavez 13 5-7 36, Begaye 0 0-0 0, Campos 0 0-0 0, Johnson 3 0-0 6, Lloyd 0 0-0 0, Young-Wilson 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 8-12 71.

Cooper 21 8 21 13 — 63

Monterey 14 23 16 18 — 71

3-point goals: Cooper 11 (C. Dallas 4, Esquivel 4, Cortez 2, North), Monterey 7 (Chavez 5, Morrison 2). Total fouls: Cooper 15, Monterey 16. Fouled out: none. Records: Cooper 17-5, Monterey 19-3.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Monterey girls outlast Lubbock-Cooper for Caprock Classic championship