One point guard helplessly watched the last 11 minutes flash before her eyes.

The other was bruised and battered to the point her arms were numb.

The clock stopped while action resumed, and hearts stopped in Francis L. Abeyta Memorial Gymnasium on Friday night.

But when West Las Vegas' Linda Esquivel's desperation heave from halfcourt hit
backboard and nothing else, the District 2AAA standings shook once again.

The Lady Braves of Santa Fe Indian School found itself atop the district standings thanks to a 57-52 win.

SFIS (16-4 overall) isn't alone, though. Pojoaque's 37-36 nail-biter over Las Vegas Robertson kept a tie at 4-1 in 2AAA.

The ending was mere survival for SFIS, which saw a 44-26 lead whittled to 55-52 with just 18.3 seconds left. That was accomplished despite the absence of Lady Dons guard Miranda Martinez, who fouled out at the 2:30 mark of the third quarter.

With one part of the three-headed monster out of service, it didn't appear West Las Vegas stood a chance.

Esquivel, the lanky inside-out presence of the Lady Dons' three-pronged attack, gave her team a heartbeat. She scored 15 of her 27 points after Martinez's departure.

And when she hit one of two free throws at the :18.3 mark, the Lady Dons were within a 3-pointer of an unlikely comeback.

It was emboldened when Lady Braves point guard Jenine Coriz, sporting a cut on the inside of her left eye from a wayward Lady Dons finger, fell out of bounds on the in-bound play. It was just another of many bumps she encountered through the night.

"Man, I was getting slapped everywhere," Coriz said. "My arms are hurting."

But when Vanessa Lucero, the final potent part of the West Las Vegas trio, airballed a 16-footer, the other Coriz sister, Justina, grabbed the crucial rebound and then hit one of two from the free-throw line for 56-52.

She added another freebie with 3.7 ticks left to seal the win, but the feel-good atmosphere that was brewing in the gym during the third quarter was not quite as buoyant at the end.

"I don't think we took advantage of that at all," SFIS head coach Cindy Roybal said of Martinez's departure. "It was a good sign for us, though. Then we got Esquivel in foul trouble (with four fouls), but we didn't compensate for that one either. I thought we should have taken the ball to the basket every time we had the ball. And the girls had just a couple of miscues there, but a win's a win. I'll take it."

West Las Vegas (20-3, 3-2) made the home team earn it, though.

After getting beaten up inside by Miranda Medina (22 points), the Lady Dons found a way to neutralize her — with fouls. Medina picked up three fouls in a 5-minute span.

After scoring on a layup with 2:16 left in the third for the 16-point cushion, Medina scored just four points.

In fact, the Lady Braves scored just 13 points over the final 10 minutes.

Much of that was attributed to the fouls SFIS picked up down the stretch.

The Lady Dons shot 21 free throws during that stretch, and made 14.

Esquivel had a 7-for-9 part in that, and when she hit three free throws after Medina committed her fourth infraction on a 3 with 3:42 left, the margin was 51-47.

"Again, we keep putting them on the free-throw line," Roybal said. "If we wanted a free-throw contest, we should have gotten rid of the officials and just shot free throws."

The Lady Braves wouldn't have won that battle, hitting only 7 of 12 tries in the fourth.

SFIS also failed to take care of the ball, turning it over 10 times during the Lady Dons' charge. During a 1:09 span late in the fourth, the Lady Braves gave the ball back to West Las Vegas three straight possessions.

Then they weren't helped by a clock that stayed frozen at 47 seconds for about five seconds, which helped Esquivel score on a putback for 54-51 with :42 to go.

"I feel that we needed to be a little more assertive with the ball and force a call," Roybal said.

The only thing that the Lady Braves forced was some untimely drama.

And a district lead.

Contact James Barron at 986-3045 or jbarron@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at thereadbarron.com.