St. Michael's worked on two things leading up to its District 5AAA girls basketball game against Pojoaque Valley -- passing in the paint and free throws.

One of them was executed almost flawlessly.

The other, not so much.

The Elkettes traveled to Perez-Shelley Memorial Gymnasium on Friday and found themselves helpless over the gantlet of inside distribution the Lady Horsemen put on display in their 56-49 win.

Whether the passes came in the form of high-low lobs, quick chest passes or bouncing entry passes, the Lady Horsemen (14-4 overall, 2-0 5AAA) executed them all against the shorter Elkettes.

With the combination of Alexa Chavez and Elizabeth Serrano under the basket, a defender can be caught in no-man's land, where she has to choose the lesser of two evils.

If neither has the space under the basket, the Lady Horsemen have Monique Romero sitting in the corner ready to shoot the 3-pointer.

"It's a pick-your-poison type thing," Romero said.

It is when it is run well, but for the first four minutes, St. Michael's had to take some of Pojoaque's poison.

The Elkettes (8-8, 0-2) jumped out to a 6-0 lead despite missing three players and head coach Juan "Pep" Alvarado.

Alvarado was serving a mandatory one-game suspension after being ejected in Pojoaque's 5AAA opener against Santa Fe Indian School. Amber Roybal, Karissa Trujillo and Analisa Martinez didn't play because of disciplinary issues.

With the help of Cheyenne Cordova at point, the Elkettes never let St. Michael's feel comfortable at home.

"There's a reason we're in the toughest district in the state and I would've expected nothing less from Pojoaque," Romero said.

Cordova hit four 3s on her way to a 25-point night. Two of those 3s came in the third quarter to give the Elkettes their first lead since the start of the game at 30-29 with 4 minutes, 50 seconds left in the quarter.

"Once I felt like they were sagging off me, I just said, 'OK, I need to pull it and take that 3,' " Cordova said.

After losing the lead, the Lady Horsemen woke up and went on a 7-0 run that gave them back the lead for good.

Chavez scored 22 of her 28 points in the second half as St. Michael's built its largest lead --15 points -- halfway through the fourth quarter. She also led the Lady Horsemen on the glass with 11 rebounds.

Pojoaque's assistant coach Orlando Cordova knew from summer matchups between the two that a big key was to slow Chavez down.

"She's one heck of a girl to stop," Cordova said. "We knew those skip passes would come. We tried to put different defenses on it but she just had our number."

It wasn't just skip passes.

St. Michael's guards would wait to feed the ball to either Serrano or Chavez at the top of the key.

Meanwhile, the other would establish position under the basket, where a simple lob pass would find them with nobody between them and two points.

Serrano finished with 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting.

Monique Romero had 12 points on four 3s as the Elkettes' defense tried to stop the potent post players.

"I think in the second half we really opened it up more and that gave us more freedom to shoot around," Chavez said.

Although Martin Romero was happy with the distribution inside and out, St. Michael's other focus this week in practice made him scratch his head -- the Lady Horsemen shot just 2-for-8 from the free-throw line.

At least, he could scratch it with a smile.

Contact Nico Roesler at 986-3089 or nroesler@sfnewmexican.com.