La Quinta Girls’ Basketball Tournament : North Salinas Overcomes La Quinta in Overtime

The inside play of North Salinas High School’s Rosa Montejano was too much for La Quinta as the Aztecs fell, 68-64, in overtime in the La Quinta tournament final Friday night.

Montejano, a 6-foot senior center, scored a game-high 31 points and pulled in 25 rebounds to lead her team to the championship, despite a La Quinta comeback that forced an overtime period.

For her efforts, Montejano was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

Montejano had 10 rebounds and scored 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the first half. In addition, she shut down La Quinta’s Amy Jalewalia, who led her team to the final with a school-record 48 points in a first-round victory over El Modena.

Jalewalia, who also scored 35 points in a semifinal romp over Westminster, made only 2 of 12 shots in the first half. La Quinta trailed North Salinas at halftime, 29-25.

“We felt we could stop the big girl (Jalewalia) by putting (Montejano) on her,” North Salinas Co-Coach Art Gilbert said. “That was key.”

Despite Jalewalia’s low offensive output in the first half, the Aztecs trailed by only 4 points.

“If you had told me that Amy would have had 4 points at the half and we were still in the game, I would have said, ‘Thank you, God,’ ” said La Quinta Coach Kevin Kiernan. “As Amy goes, we go.”

At the end of the third quarter the Aztecs still trailed, 38-43. Montejano opened the fourth quarter with a basket to give her team a 7-point lead and North Salinas seemed ready to break the game open.

But the Aztecs went to a full-court press and Jalewalia regained her shooting touch.

Her running hook from the right side cut the lead to 48-42 with 5 minutes remaining. With 3:25 to play, Jalewalia hit a 3-pointer and the La Quinta trailed, 53-50.

After the Aztecs missed 3 attempts, Jalewalia scored again to make it 53-52. She then passed to Tanya Krill, whose layup gave La Quinta the lead (54-53) for the first time in the half.

Montejano added 5 more points, including a 3-point shot, as North Salinas tied the game at 58. La Quinta had the ball and a chance to win with 9 seconds remaining, but Jalewalia’s pass under the basket was high and off the fingertips of teammate Jennifer Jeffries.

The Aztecs scored 4 points to open the extra period, but Montejano responded with 4 of her own. North Salinas totaled 10 points in the overtime period and put the game out of reach.

Jalewalia finished the game with 24 points on 9-of-36 shooting and was named to the all-tournament team. Heather Brannan added 16 and Krill 14 for La Quinta.

Kiernan praised Montejano’s play and attributed Jalewalia’s performance to nerves and youth.

“She came out tentative,” Kiernan said. “We’re a young team. We start four juniors and a sophomore and (Jalewalia) is just a junior.

“I wrote on the board before the game, ‘Can we win a big game or are we scared?’ ” Kiernan added. “We couldn’t.”