RIO RANCHO — It's said success breeds success. That's one lesson Peñasco head coach David Sanchez said Thursday he wants his Lady Panthers to learn in the wake of a 58-41 loss to traditional powerhouse Texico in a semifinal of the Class AA Girls State Basketball Championships.

"I think a lot of it is that Texico expects to win," he said. "They've built a great tradition in Texico about winning state championships and that something that we, as a team, have to learn also and start to build that tradition that when we step on the floor expecting to win."

Tradition aside, the top-seeded Lady Wolverines also had the other factors that go into having a great team — things like discipline and stamina. They ran out to a 15-9 first quarter lead that ballooned to a 33-10 halftime lead.

"It was just nerves and knowing that they're number one," said senior guard Maria Sam. "We'd played them before. Every time since I was a freshman, we lost to them."

Junior Alexandria "Lexy" Trujillo said the Lady Panthers knew what to expect against the Lady Wolverines.

"They execute good and they play well together," she said. "Even the little things they do good. We played with them, then we started playing lazy. We just backed off a little bit and started watching the ball instead of watching our man."

"Then they got the momentum and just kept going and going," Sam finished.

Peñasco was able to salvage some pride by outscoring Texico 28-9 in the fourth quarter, as the Lady Wolverines sat their starters. But the Lady Panthers showed fight throughout the second half despite the overwhelming deficit.

"We couldn't give up," said sophomore Chelsea Visarraga. "We wanted to keep fighting no matter what. Even if we were down 50 we'd keep on fighting."

Sanchez said he and his assistants talked to the team about persevering at halftime.

"You're going to face adversity some time in your life and that's what we talked about at halftime," Sanchez said. "You find out what kind of person, what kind of team you are by handling that adversity. We made sure to come out and show them we had pride."

Despite the loss, Sanchez said the team has a lot of the proud of.

"This was a team that was 12-14 last year — we finished the season 23-7, 6-0 in district," he said. "We won 18 of the last 20 games of the season. I can't ask for more of a team than this. It's great to see players sacrifice their personal accomplishments for the team. That's why they were in the semifinals."

Sam and Trujillo said Sanchez and his staff deserve a lot of the credit for their success this year.

"It's all coach," Sam said. "As seniors, we've never had the same coach two years a row, which is hard."

"We've played forever together," Visarraga said. "Since elementary, we've never had the same coach two years in a row."

Trujillo said she hopes this year's success will increase interest and turnout in the program.

"We have a lot of talent in Peñasco," she said. "Girls just need to come out and play. Even some girls who don't come out, they can play. If they come out we can have a good team for a lot of years to come."

Looking at Sam, the departing senior, Trujillo said the team would miss her and the other two departing seniors, Brittany Esquibel and Kim Chacon, but the team would soldier on.

"We have a lot of younger girls who can step up," Trujillo said. "We'll keep it up. We'll make them proud."