Payback felt pretty good Tuesday night.

Seven weeks removed from a heartbreaking home loss to its rival, Coronado girls basketball handed out a measure of revenge, and in doing so captured sole possession of second place in District 2-5A, using a surge early in the fourth quarter and holding off Monterey for a 56-51 victory at the New Box.

Sophomore guard Lauren Dudding scored seven of her 15 points during the first two minutes of the final period, and Coronado (26-6, 14-2) was able to avenge the one-point loss to the Lady Plainsmen (21-10, 13-3) at home on Dec. 14 and break a two-game losing streak to its crosstown rival.

Coronado's Suzzy Dimba, right, scores despite the tall defense of Monterey's 6-foot-4 Haley Schneider during their game Tuesday night at Monterey. (Geoffrey McAllister/Avalanche-Journal)

Coronado's Lauren Dudding jumps between Monterey defenders during their game Tuesday night at Monterey. Coronado won 56-51. Tuesday, Feb. 02, 2010 (Photo by Geoffrey McAllister/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)

Coronado's Bailey Wipff, left, and Monterey's Kellyn Schneider fight for possession of a loose ball during their game Tuesday at Monterey. Coronado won 56-51. (Geoffrey McAllister/Avalanche-Journal)

“I was just feeling it,” said Dudding, who sparked the 7-0 run with her only 3-pointer of the game. “We weren’t going to lose to them a third time in a row. We were extremely prepared.”

Dudding’s effort helped soften the blow of playing almost the entire game with leading scorer Devin Griffin in foul trouble. Griffin, who was nominated Tuesday as a McDonald’s High School All-American, still finished with a team-high 16 points, but picked up two fouls by the midpoint of the first quarter and her third with 2:45 left in the first half.

Monterey, though, was never able to take full advantage of Griffin’s absence because Coronado had key stretches where the tempo intensified, which nullified at times Monterey’s height advantage. The Lady Plainsmen found success when they controlled the tempo in the half court.

Kellyn Schneider finished with a game-high 20 points, while older sister and Texas Tech signee Haley Schneider added 14 points and 12 rebounds. But the Lady Plainsmen could not put enough solid possessions together to take control of the game, finishing with 22 turnovers and watching Coronado grab a 33-25 advantage in rebounding.

“Every time we felt like we got ourselves under control and got some half-court sets and got some good looks offensively, I felt good about it,” Monterey coach Jill Schneider said. “But we let ourselves get caught up in the mayhem, the hully-gully, up and down the floor. There were a lot of possessions where neither team was pretty and turned it over back and forth. I don’t think we do a very good job of incorporating Haley into our offense when we’re hully-gully like that. She didn’t get enough touches.”

Haley Schneider’s touches on back-to-back possessions early in the second quarter gave Monterey a 12-10 lead, but Coronado was able to pick up the pace and go on a 9-2 run, started by the first of Hailee Roye’s two first-half 3-pointers. That allowed the Lady Mustangs to hang on to a 23-21 lead at the intermission.

Coronado appeared to be making its move midway through the third when baskets by Roye, Ragan Jones and Griffin gave the Lady Mustangs a 35-29 lead. But Monterey slowly reeled Coronado in as Kellyn Schneider hit four free throws and Haley Schneider drilled a jumper from the free throw line to close to within 39-37 going to the fourth quarter.

Monterey kept that momentum and led 40-39 after Stephanee
Carrillo’s third trey of the half 20 seconds into the fourth quarter. But Dudding answered with her three, scored on a 10-foot jumper and converted a steal into a layup to put the Lady Mustangs up 46-40
with 6:09 left in the game.

A Kellyn Schneider 3-pointer stopped the run, but Griffin answered with a reverse layup and Jones hit a pair of free throws to push the lead to 50-43. Haley Schneider scored the next six points for the Lady Plainsmen, and her 15-footer from the free throw line closed the gap to three at 52-49. But with time winding down, Monterey was forced to begin fouling, and Griffin and Jennifer Altman sank both ends of 1-and-1 opportunities to ice the game.

“Our kids in the second half played with a tremendous amount of pride,” Coronado coach Shirlene Hughes said. “The last times we’ve played them we lost the game in the last second both times, last year here and the first time this year. It’s only natural this is the kind of game you don’t have to get your kids fired up to play. The first half we started off maybe we were a little too fired up and wound up.

“Lauren has really turned into an extremely mature player the last few games and has been very focused and very coachable. She’s taken her game to another level, and the team really needed that.”

CORONADO 56, MONTEREY 51
CORONADO — Altman 2 2-2 6, Wyatt 0 0-0 0, Wipff 1 0-0 2, Griffin 6 4-6 16, Dudding 7 0-0 15, Jones 2 2-2 6, Roye 3 0-0 8, L. Dimba 1 0-0 2, S. Dimba 0 1-2 1. Totals 22 9-12 56.
MONTEREY — Salameh 0 0-0 0, K. Schneider 6 7-9 20, Carrillo 3 0-0 9, Brown 0 0-0 0, Smallin 1 0-0 2, Armstrong 0 0-0 0, H. Schneider 7 0-1 14, Wilson 3 0-0 6. Totals 20 7-10 51.
Coronado 6 17 16 17 — 56
Monterey 6 15 16 14 — 51
3-point goals: Monterey 4 (Carrillo 3, K. Schneider), Coronado 3 (Roye 2, Dudding). Total fouls: Monterey 14, Coronado 13. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: none. Records: Coronado 24-6, 14-2 in 2-5A; Monterey 21-10, 13-3. JV score: Monterey 48, Coronado 45.