ALBUQUERQUE — Eyes red and wet with emotion, the trio of West Las Vegas High School basketball players and their head coach entered the interview room beneath The Pit after Thursday's semifinal of the Class AAA Girls State Basketball Championships in silence.

The Lady Dons' berth into tonight's final was momentous, the first ever for a West Las Vegas team from a hoops-loving community.

It was dramatic, a 47-46 overtime win over rival St. Michael's, delivered on a last-second shot by Miranda Martinez.

It was too much for them.

Said Lady Dons head coach Jose Medina: "We're making history at West Las Vegas."

They will play Santa Fe Indian School in The Pit at 6.

When it was St. Michael's turn to address the media, they were bubblier. Not quite jubilant, but nowhere near the crushed state which you might expect after such a heart-wringing loss.

"For me, I think I'm just humbled by the whole experience," said St. Michael's senior guard Jamie Velasquez, who missed most of district play with an illness. "I didn't think I was going to get to play the rest of the season. So to be able to come back for state was amazing. And I'm just so proud of myself and my team. For me, we came up a point short, but it's a good day to be a Lady Horseman.

"That's what I'm focusing on, it easily could have been us."

Indeed. Those reversed roles reflected the tightness of the game, just how delicate the difference between victory and defeat can be.

Trailing by one, 46-45, with 4.7 seconds to play, the Lady Dons inbounded the ball near half court. Martinez dribbled for a moment and somehow squeezed through a spot a pizza box probably couldn't traverse sideways. She lobbed up the runner, banked it in and sent her teammates into a frenzy.

"I was just so relieved the last shot went in and that we had one more chance to take it," said Martinez, who had a game-high 19 points. "We had our chances, I missed — oh gosh — thank God for that extra opportunity."

Martinez had missed two free throws — seconds before her game winner and at the end of regulation — that may have ended it quicker for West Las Vegas (28-4). Her second miss gave Brittny Quintana an opportunity and she canned a short jumper with 10 seconds to play to give the Lady Horsemen the 46-45 lead.

After a timeout, West Las Vegas inbounded the ball from the opposite baseline, to Linda Esquibel (11 points). In a full sprint she took a couple dribbles and ran into a St. Michael's (16-15) defender. She fell and the ball tumbled out.

"I thought they fouled us," Medina said. "But they let us play. The refs did a great job."

Instead of a foul, it was a jump ball. Fortuitous for the Lady Dons, they had the possession arrow. If it had been pointed the Lady Horsemen's direction, the game likely would have ended with another surprise win for the No. 9 seed St. Michael's.

And West Las Vegas wouldn't have had that chance if it wasn't for a shorted free throw by the usually reliable Alexa Chavez. With 1.7 seconds left in regulation she missed the first of two, then coolly sank the second to tie the game.

Early in the fourth quarter it didn't seem like the game would carry much drama. West Las Vegas opened up a nine-point lead, then started to slow the pace. It played right into the Lady Horsemen's hand.

"It changed the momentum," St. Michael's head coach Martin Romero said. "It did. We extended our defense. It brought us out of our triangle-and-two. They started having trouble scoring. It was absolutely pivotal ... I cringe sometimes when we have to play our man-to-man, but it played in our favor."

Velasquez (16 points) and Tamara Quintana hit big shots. Suddenly it was a game.

"Every team's unique," Medina said. "But this team is special — their chemistry, their love for each other, their unity. It's a very special team."