Santa Fe High’s girls basketball team remained unbeaten with a 29-28 win over St. Michael’s on Thursday night in Perez-Shelley Memorial Gymnasium.

The Demonettes (10-0) never trailed in the second half and twice averted potential go-ahead buckets by the Lady Horsemen (4-7) in the final minute.

“It was a good, close game all the way but Santa Fe High’s a good team,” said Martin Romero, St. Michael’s head coach. “They prevent you from doing a lot of things inside and [Thursday night] it hurt us.”

By Romero’s count, the Lady Horsemen missed 10 layups against the Demonettes’ bigger lineup in the block.

Time and again Santa Fe High turned away scoring opportunities by relying on a suffocating defense that switched between the zone and the man-to-man.

The score was 10-10 at halftime, but the Demonettes took a lead early in the third quarter and never let it go.

St. Michael’s was close until the final buzzer but twice failed to convert in the waning moments. The first came when Alex Groenewold stole the ball in the final minute, drove in and was called for a charge.

The second came on the next possession when, after a steal, the Lady Horsemen failed to get a potential game-winning shot off.

Kayla Martinez led both teams with 14 points for Santa Fe High. Groenewold had seven and Cris Gabaldon six for St. Michael’s.

Mora 55, Springer 39

Chantel Rivera dropped in a game-high 24 points to lead the undefeated Rangerettes (5-0) to a comfortable win over the Lady Red Devils (4-6). Destiny Pacheco added 10 for Mora, which led 29-16 at halftime and 47-26 after three quarters.

“Chantel continues to lead the way for us and Destiny is starting to come along, which is good,” said Mark Cassidy, Rangerettes head coach. “We hadn’t played in 12 days, so there was some sloppiness. Once we worked through that we had a chance to play some more kids in the middle quarters.”

Kyra Laumbach had a team-high 10 points for Springer.

BOYS

Mora 79, Springer 41

Lorenzo Chavez led five Rangers in double figures with a game-high 22 points, helping Mora bounce back from what head coach James Branch said was an embarrassing loss on Monday night against Santa Rosa.

“It was pretty frustrating,” he said. “We felt like the kids didn’t step up to play and we wanted to come out and make a statement.”

Mora had a 15-point lead after one quarter and was up 22 at the half. Cody Najar chipped in with 19 points.

Amrick Velasquez, Jeremiah Olivas and Curtis Vasquez each had 10.