ESPAñOLA — Lady Sundevils head basketball coach Ron Drake is willing to go plenty of extra miles to build a winner.

Drake, who lives in Sandia Park east of Albuquerque, travels 170 miles every day to and from Española. It's a tough commute, but one that has produced a big winner for fans in the basketball hotbed that is Española Valley.

Drake took over a program that went 0-27 in 2006-07 and in three years has put together what ranks as one of the best ever turnarounds in girls basketball in New Mexico.

The Lady Sundevils are 25-4 and the No. 4 seed in the Class AAAA state tournament. They'll face district rival Los Alamos, the No. 5 seed, in a quarterfinal today.

In towns like Kirtland Central, Shiprock, Gallup or Portales, a program with that type of record would be the main draw for its fans. But the Lady Sundevils have been running in the shadow of the Española boys team all season.

The Sundevils are 26-2 and second-seeded team in AAAA. They consistently draw huge crowds to 3,600-seat Edward Medina Gymnasium.

Drake, who has coached both girls and boys, says he understands the undercard status of the Lady Sundevils.

"As a girls coach, you expect that," Drake said. "When I was at Santa Fe High, our girls team was one of the best in the state and the boys were mediocre. They still outdrew us."

Drake's first team at Española went 12-14. Last year the Lady Sundevils finished 18-8 and this season have been ranked in the Top 5 of the New Mexico High School Coaches Assocation poll for most of the season.

Building winning programs is nothing new for Drake. His record at Santa Fe High was 217-87 in his 11 years and got the Lady Demons to the finals once and to the semifinals two other times. He coached girls basketball at Immaculata High School in New Jersey before coming to New Mexico and his teams there went 147-17 and won a state championship.

Lisa Duran, the Lady Sundevils' senior point guard and scoring leader (18.4 ppg), was a freshman on the team that went winless three years ago. She says it took patience and perseverance to make it through that season.

"I hate losing and it was frustrating, but basketball is my thing. I wasn't going to quit," she said.

Duran says it's a little troubling that the Lady Sundevils don't get the same level of support as do the Española boys.

"It bothers me that we don't get as much support and we're doing as good as they are," she said. "But at the same time, we're getting the program up."

Drake says he was between jobs when he decided to take the Española coaching job. He credits his longtime friendship with former Española Athletic Director Dave Fontaine for his decision to take the job.

But Drake also felt there was potential for success at Española, having had a chance to watch the girls play while he was coaching at a middle school in Moriarty.

Once Drake got to Española, he realized he had landed in an area where basketball is a year-round passion.

"It's a great place to be," Drake said. "Santa Fe has so many other things to offer and Española is just a basketball town. It's a very good fit for me."

The Española fans undoubtedly would agree.