ALBUQUERQUE — St. Michael's High School never had a sense of awe about facing No. 1 Portales in Tuesday's quarterfinal of the Class AAA Girls State Basketball Tournament in The Pit.

"There was never a doubt in my mind that we could compete with them," said Lady Horsemen senior Tamara Quintana.

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It showed on the court as No. 9 St. Michael's sent the Rams packing with a 32-28 victory. The Lady Horsemen will play West Las Vegas on Thursday at 8 a.m. in The Pit.

"Midway through the fourth quarter I could see it in my players' eyes that they believed that something special was going to happen," said St. Michael's head coach Martin Romero.

The Lady Horsemen (16-14) used a 9-0 run in the third quarter to erase a Portales (17-9) advantage, then it took control of the game with a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter en route to a 32-28 victory.

Quintana hit a 3-pointer with 5:15 left in the game to put the Lady Horsemen up for good at 24-22. It was their first lead since starting the game 2-0. Quintana finished with a team-high 10 points.

"For me, basketball is a tremendous game of momentum," Horsemen senior Jamie Velasquez said. "And it flips on a dime. So you ride out the good times and you wait for them. We hadn't had ours yet, so we were just waiting for it."

The Lady Horsemen's turnaround coincided with a change in defensive tactics.

"Putting pressure on them seemed to get us going," Romero said. "Defensively, we took the ball out of (Gabby Garcia's) hands. We recognized she was their playmaker and we denied her the ball. It really slowed down their offense and I think they struggled to attack the rim."

The modified zone was effective in turning the momentum in the Lady Horsemen's favor and taking Portales out of its comfort zone.

"Give credit to St. Michael's" said Rams head coach Cliff Stout. "They outplayed us today. You get to this point, you have to play sharp."

St. Michael's had a lot to do with Portales not looking very sharp, outside of Macy Mitchell, who scored a game-high 13 points.

"I thought Portales was quite frustrated with the box-and-one," Romero said. "They struggled in getting any kind of flow."

It helped the Lady Horsemen become more active on both ends of the court.

"There are times when the game just comes to you and we were hoping the game would come to us," said Velasquez, who scored nine points. "And it didn't happen, so it was sort of like us going out there and making it happen and making sure that what we wanted was exactly what was happening. I think the difference was us being assertive. Going out and getting it ourselves."

Another big key for the Lady Horsemen was having experience in The Pit.

"This is my third time (playing in The Pit)," Velasquez said. "I found myself telling the other girls, 'Breathe. It's OK.' All you see is the deer in the headlights. And it is scary. Everything feels longer and bigger and crazy. For me, having been here before is huge and I feel like it helps my teammate calm down when I talk to them."