Lauren Green is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism master's student assigned to cover Chandler for AZPreps365.com

CHANDLER--Last year, the Chandler girls basketball team saw two wins throughout their entire season.

Chandler overcame its playoff drought with authority in a 55-44 play-in game victory against Shadow Ridge.

With just one turnover in the first quarter, the Wolves ran the floor with an 11-0 run with the addition of a strong defensive stature. Chandler willed itself in the paint for seven rebounds as the Stallions had no answer. Junior shooting guard Autumn Rodriguez led the pack with five of the team's 11 points in that run.

Senior shooting guard Stasia Duque led the team in scoring, tallying 12 points for the Wolves as she facilitated and played point guard for most of the night.

Stasia Duque shooting a free throw to hold the Stallions off in their play-in game. (Lauren Green photo / AZPreps365)

At one point Chandler held Shadow Ridge's offense stagnant for nearly a minute, necessitating a Stallion timeout.

After nearly going scoreless in this quarter, Shadow Ridge belatedly added six points to the board, with four of them coming from free throws in the last 90 seconds.

“The girls wanted it more than anything in the world,” Shadow Ridge co-coach John Williams said. “But you know, when you come out and shoot 5-for-20, it's kind of hard to recover.”

The shooting fouls committed by Chandler (11-7, 3-5) late in the first quarter continued into the second quarter, causing the Wolves to shift out of rhythm. Once the Stallions were feeling good off some momentum, the Wolves began to turn the ball over — an issue that was unrecognizable in the first quarter.

Shadow Ridge (11-7, 5-5) forced six Chandler turnovers in the second quarter while going on a 6-0 run. The Stallions took the reins and led 15-14 within the first few minutes. With extensive pressure and double teams almost every pass, Chandler became flustered with the newfound Shadow Ridge intensity.

On Tuesday Chandler had struggled with the same issues in its loss against Perry — defensive pressure that led to turnover after turnover with no offensive rhythm.

Thursday night, the Wolves were agitated but quickly kept their heads in the game to combat a repeat of a few days ago.

“We had eight minutes where we didn't score,” junior forward Aubrielle McRoberts said. “We let ourselves down, we let our teammates down, we didn't have that same mentality, that same energy.”

While only leading by two at the half, 20-18, the Wolves came out of the locker room with a different mentality and different energy.

Chandler's new intensity flourished on the court. Instead of letting a turnover or mistake shut down its offense, the Wolves played through the mistakes and held onto their lead.

A key factor of Chandler's smooth offense came from their ball movement across the court. The Wolves were able to quickly move the ball to find new options within their offense at a rate with which the Stallions could not contend.

In the third quarter, McRoberts had insane court vision. The ball found her in the high post where she was double-teamed frequently but if she couldn’t find her way to the basket, she was kicking the ball back out to the corner to Rodriguez or Duque for three-pointers.

“Being able to square up, look around, see if I'm open, and then look at my teammates and make sure that I'm making the right read, “McRoberts said. “It's a hard thing to do, but it also helps me get my teammates open looks.”

McRoberts finished the night with eight points on the board for the Wolves.

When junior guard Kaela Whitehair's buzzer-beater layup ended the third quarter, the Chandler bench filled with loud cheers and screams not only for the play but knowing this surge had just sealed the game heading into the fourth.

Chandler looks to make a difference in their program this year ahead of next week’s playoff game.

“This win here and this playoff run could just mean the resurgence of the program,” coach Greenough said. “Where neighborhood kids see Chandler girls basketball and they want to play for us. They don't feel like they need to go to an out-of-boundary school to get a good basketball experience, and that's what it's all about.”