Unfazed about actually having a shot clock with which to contend, let alone another team, graduated Ignacio (CHSAA Class 2A) star Avaleena Nanaeto capped her prep-level basketball career in superb style Saturday, June 11. 

With her Colorado High School Coaches Association All-State Games White squad creeping closer and closer to an Elam-rules ‘target’ of 72 points – when the special format came into play midway through the fourth and final 10-minute quarter, White was leading ASG-Black 64-52 – Nanaeto swung out onto the left wing and, unguarded, calmly canned a three-pointer increasing White’s advantage to 71-57. 

“I didn’t know what the score was, so I just shot it. I was like, ‘If it goes in, it goes in!’” she said afterwards. “Then (my teammates) were like, ‘We only need one (point)!’ So, it felt good.” 

Minutes later the game was over, the scoreboard inside CSU-Pueblo’s Massari Arena showing a margin of 73-62. 

Nanaeto totaled six points, all coming after Black, triggered by a game-opening basket from 3A Pagosa Springs’ Trista Tully, bolted out to an impressive, imposing 26-11 lead through one quarter of play. Metro State University-Denver recruit Mikylah Espinosa of 4A Thornton Skyview (she’d played her first three seasons in Westminster at 3A The Academy) knocked down two threes – one as the horn sounded – and booked ten of her eventual game-high 19 points during the opening onslaught. 

But 1A San Luis Centennial’s JaeLea Maestas, daughter of Games head coach Jason Maestas, began the second stanza sinking consecutive treys, igniting a crowd-wowing 11-0 run which helped White rally back to 33-28 at halftime. Bumped by both Alexa Peraza (Skyview) and Jami Quick (Pritchett/1A South Baca County) on a running jumper in the lane, but somehow able to get the shot to drop, Nanaeto’s first field goal had brought White back to as close as 31-27. 

And after 3A Strasburg’s Morgan Manahan and 2A Sanford’s Asia Caldon began the third quarter with a two-pointer each, White finally gained the upper hand for the first time, 34-33, when 5A Castle Rock Castle View’s Ella Seeley knocked down a 14-footer with 7:27 left. 

Espinosa would soon re-tie the score at 38 with a rim-rattling three-pointer, but White would not only re-take the lead but expand it to as many as seven points, 51-44, via a late Caldon triple. Still trailing 51-46 as the fourth frame commenced, Black managed to stay alive thanks to seven Peraza points and Espinosa’s fourth trey in the game, but with White getting scoring from Nanaeto and seven others down the stretch, Black lost the quarter 22-16 and, ultimately, lost the third-place contest. 

“Totally … puts a good end to it,” said Tully, when asked if, despite the outcome, playing in the Games made for a memorable conclusion to her high-school days, “that I was able to play one last time a sport that I love so much.” 

She finished with six points, while Peraza ended up with 11 and 4A Greeley Northridge’s Seneya Martinez 12. 

“I’m honored to be here with all these wonderful ladies that have worked to get here. Really, they’re all spectacular,” said Tully, very much looking forward to August and the start of her U.S. Air Force basic training in San Antonio, Texas. 

Caldon and 3A Kersey Platte Valley’s Cora Schissler each racked up 14 points for ASG-White, with PV’s Brooke Bunting (10 points) also reaching double digits and Maestas (9) coming as close as mathematically possible. Seeley finished with seven points, Sanford’s Cheyenne Caldon logged five, and 2A Sargent’s Gabby Jones matched Manahan’s four. 

“I felt like I got to play my position; I was really happy about that,” said Nanaeto, coached by Maestas and PV’s Tonya Schissler. “There were good coaches … who had good plays, and I liked their rotations.” 

“I don’t know; I just liked the team here better,” she continued, when asked to compare her Pueblo posse – which had lost 72-53 the previous day to ASG-Red; Black had fallen 78-73 to Blue – to her Colorado Coaches of Girls’ Sports All-State side which played at 5A Aurora Grandview H.S. back in March. “I really enjoyed coming here.”