Riding an 18 game winning streak and dominating almost all opponents left little doubt that the Mesa Vista girls basketball team would charge into this week’s state tournament as the Class 2A top seed for the second time in three seasons.

And the area is well represented overall, with three other local teams also looking to make their March Madness mark when the tournament starts at home sites Friday (3/6).

CLASS 4A

No. 11 Española Valley (18-10) at No. 6 Bernalillo (23-5), 6 p.m.

It took almost half the season for the Lady Sundevils to start figuring things out, which is not surprising considering the team graduated its top seven players from last season.

A mid-season tournament in Bernalillo proved to be the turning point for the Lady Sundevils, and now they return to the site where the turnaround began.

“It all started at Bernalillo,” coach Ray Romero said. “That’s where we started playing good ball. Ever since that game against St. Pius, we did turn it around.”

The Lady Sundevils got down 10-0 in the game and “I told the girls to relax and we started hitting shots,” Romero said. “Then we started shooting with confidence. One of my seniors, she told me that it started clicking in that game.”

The improvement led to Española winning 13 of its final 16 games and it came just in time for District 2-4A play.

“It seemed like the whole team was similar,” Romero said. “We were never great shooters, but we were becoming good shooters. We could have opportunities to win even when our defense wasn’t great. We didn’t always have to rely on our defense.”

As for meeting the Lady Spartans, who beat Española 50-38 in December, “they have two bigs who are really good and some good guards,” Romero said. “We’re excited for the challenge. If we have the right game plan and we execute and we’ll be successful.”

Getting point guard Leah Vigil on track has had a big impact on the team’s success, he said.

“She’s gaining more confidence,” Romero said. “Last year, she’d hit a couple of shots at a time, and this year came right over from volleyball to basketball and there was a brand new team, but she has more confidence in her shooting and her ability to lead us.”

Now it just comes down to performing like Romero knows they can.

“Our focus has to be high,” he said. “When our focus is high, we can play with anybody. We’ll be in the game.”

No. 12 Pojoaque Valley (208) at No. 5 Valencia (21-6), 7 p.m.

The Elkettes have had their issues keeping players healthy throughout the District 2 season, which hampered them during their first games against Española, but it came together for Pojoaque during the district championship game.

“I think we’re playing better,” coach Bobby Romero said. “We’re finally getting about where we were. We’re playing about 85-90% of where we were. And hopefully, this next week, we’ll get healthier and get our girls back in shape.”

Still, even at 100%, the coach knows his squad is in for a tussle, especially on the road.

“They’re a tough team,” he said of the Lady Jaguars. “They have three seniors who are going to be definite contributors.”

Shutting down the Valencia trio of Naimi Corrales (12.2 points a game), Jaiden Montgomery (11.4) and Francesca Otero (10.8) will be a tough task, but one the Elkettes can achieve.

“They rely on those three girls heavily,” Bobby Romero said. “But we should definitely be able to play with them. We’ll have to adjust and play our type of basketball and control the tempo. And hopefully we can hit some shots. We haven’t been able to put up a ton of points like we have in the past. If we have a good shooting night, we should be just fine.”

But that’s great thing about this time, he said.

CLASS 2A

No. 1 Mesa Vista (25-2) vs. No. 16 Hozho Academy (1612), 6 p.m.

Where to start with the Lady Trojans, who are as locked in as any team in the state right now?

Well, perhaps it’s best to look at where they’ve been, which is a topflight program that has lost 14 players to graduation in the prior two seasons.

That leaves Mesa Vista with a bunch of youngsters who had no desire to wait around, but instead have gotten right after it, led by coach Jesse Boies’ daughter, freshman point guard Aayileah Boies, who is scoring 17.8 points with 4.3 assists and 8.1 steals.

As a matter of fact, the team is a running-gunning crime spree, averaging 24 steals a game, with Aubrey Maestas, Valery Martinez, Charlene Archuleta, Isabella Gallegos and Jordyn Serrano all averaging at least two thefts per game.

“We were expecting this year to be a little more challenging,” Jesse Boies said. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s been challenging. And we’ve had growing pains, majorly. But they listen to us. They’ve bought into the culture we’ve built here.”

Maestas does her job of also filling up the hoop with 11.6 points and the rest of the roster all contribute, as well.

“If we can get everybody to come together for the next four games and perform the best they’ve performed, we’ll be alright,” he said. “We all want to see all 10 of them to go off.”

No. 8 McCurdy (21-9) vs. No. 9 Jal (17-11), 6 p.m.

Although Lady Bobcats coach Mel Martinez was expecting a better seed, getting a home game and sitting and waiting for the Lady Panthers to drive more than 400 miles to Española is not such a bad thing.

“We got that home game and that’s going to help us,” he said. “They’re taller than us and they play man-to-man and they’re coming from a tough district, too.”

Perhaps, but there probably are not many districts tougher than District 5.

“I’m hoping that’s prepared us for what’s to come,” Martinez said. “We’ve toughen our schedule just for this time of the year.”

McCurdy will be missing one of its top players in Alyanna Chavez due to injury, but other players have stepped into more important roles. Leading the way, Kaylee Martinez has been providing a scoring punch, as has Isabella Archuleta.

But expect the Bobcats to rely on their athleticism with a few tricks mixed in.

“We’ve been able to press most teams with our full and half-court press,” Mel Martinez said. “But we’re going to rely on a 1-3-1 zone. It’s worked real well for us lately.”