BAYFIELD—Shawn Cody believes Miranda Geringer has a good head atop her shoulders.

But following a rough 56-18 loss at Class 3A’s second-ranked Centauri, the Alamosa Girls’ Basketball skipper admitted the next afternoon he’d been concerned about said head’s support structure going into AHS’ Feb. 27 game at Bayfield.

“She got hurt last night,” Cody explained, “and her neck was pretty sore…when I asked her this morning, ‘You okay?’  She said, ‘Yeah, Coach; it’s just my neck.’”

No biggie, right?

Apparently not; swishing two key third-quarter three-pointers, the sophomore reserve would total a team-leading 11 points against the senior-heavy Lady Wolverines, with her last tally—a free throw with 33.9 seconds left in the first four-minute overtime period—tying the score at 37-37, allowing the Mean Moose to force a second bonus stanza and, ultimately, escape BHS Gymnasium with a 42-37 win.

“We were a little bit tired but we knew we had a game to play—a game we knew we needed to win,” Geringer said, quickly addressing media while en route to the auxiliary gym to suit up for junior-varsity duty.  “But I didn’t realize I was going to go in as much as I did, or play as well as I did!”

“I told her (afterwards), ‘Maybe we ought to hurt your neck more often, if THAT’S how you’re going to play,’” joked Cody.  “It was amazing.  You know, that’s the first game where she’s got that much varsity time and she just stepped up.”

“It’s always hard getting on the bus, coming over at 11:00 in the morning, and I’d kind of made up my mind that if we’re not having any energy I’m going to have to go with some of those younger girls,” Cody continued.  “We went with Miranda, we went with Miquela…. They’ve been playing really good on JV lately, and I just felt like they were going to bring us energy.  And they did.”

Helping AHS’ bench outscore BHS’ 18 to 7, sophomore Miquela Abeyta banked in the game-clinching two points during the penultimate seconds, and Bayfield’s fading Senior Day victory hopes disappeared when point guard Madison Wells (16 points) was called for traveling with 0:12.6 remaining while motivating a desperate 2-on-1 breakaway.

“Until today (Abeyta) hadn’t played more than two minutes of a varsity game,” said Cody.  “Had a big basket, but she had some huge rebounds—and I felt like she had composure down the line for a girl that…about wore herself into the ground.”

Almost everyone had to play in such a way for Alamosa (5-7, 3-4 3A Intermountain), which never led in the contest until sophomore starter Mary Macias’ deuce off an inbounds pass with 2:27 left in the first overtime—or 1:14 after sophomore reserve Brooke Gonzales fouled out—put the guests up 33-31.

Booking just two points, Gonzales’ gutsy take to the tin with 45 regulation ticks remaining had drawn the Moose level, 31-31, for the first time since Geringer canned two free throws (she’d finish a crucial 5-of-6 at the charity stripe; Wells struggled by comparison, going 2-of-9) with 6:07 left in the second quarter, deadlocking the action at 15.

“It was real nerve-wracking,” Geringer admitted.  “I just had to step up and try to help lead the team.  Once I made the first one I kind of let my nerves settle, to…continue to play.”

After sophomore regular Sydney Jackson (4 points) easily out-jumped Lady Wolverine junior Abby Tate (7 points, 3-4 FT) to win the jump beginning the second overtime, Macias (9 points, 2-4 FT) electrified AHS’ Cody-sought intensity by nailing an early go-ahead trey, then thwarting Bayfield’s first chance to respond with a steal at the other end.

“We couldn’t foul, we couldn’t put ourselves in bad situations,” said Geringer.  “Yeah, we had to think smartly.”

Senior sharpshooter Emily Lavier also reached double digits for Alamosa with her 10 points; senior Cayanne Carlson nearly did so in defeat for the Lady Wolverines (1-9, 1-6 IML) with her nine.

“Obviously it’s the longest game we’ve played in years—and much less while wearing masks!” noted BHS boss Josh Kitchen.  “That second overtime we were working hard, but…ran out of gas there a little bit.  To Alamosa’s credit, they were keeping high pressure defensively; we just couldn’t get open looks we were looking for.  They played well.”

Having won only the fourth of four games played during a seven-day span, the youth-blessed Mean Moose—who trailed 15-10 after the first quarter, 22-16 at halftime and 30-25 after the third—will next sew up their COVID-restricted 2020-21 regular-season slate hosting Montezuma-Cortez on Saturday, March 6.

DID YOU KNOW: Also occurring Saturday afternoon, 5A Denver South senior Timiya Guevara reportedly cashed 15 of 18 attempted three-pointers during the No. 13-ranked, October 2020-renamed Lady Ravens’ 115-10 decimation of Denver Abraham Lincoln—already the hapless Lady Lancers’ fourth reported loss this winter by 54 or more points.

Recording 55 total points, third-most in CHSAA girls’ hoops history for a single outing, Guevara bettered Lavier’s previous state-best 12 triples—logged last Jan. 18 (Carly Dilworth, Guevara’s former teammate with the then-Lady Rebels, had hit 11 the day before) in 19 tries, en route to posting 38 points during a 61-12 rout of Monte Vista.

An unaware Lavier did drain three shots on Saturday from distance, always a welcome sight to Cody.

“You know, she’s nearing her last game in her career and she had a good close-out in her last game here at Bayfield, probably,” he said.  “She did a great job.”