2A girls: Aaliyah Boies' late 3-pointer sends Mesa Vista to historic title

For as long as Mesa Vista fields a girls basketball program, what happened at the end of Saturday’s Class 2A state title game will go down as perhaps the greatest play in the program’s history, authored by a player who very well could be remembered as one of its all-time greats.

It also wasn’t supposed to go down the way it did.

Just ask Aaliyah Boies.

“It wasn’t planned,” Mesa Vista’s star guard clarified. “We had a different plan.”

The original plan: A smart play called “Flash.” Trailing 47-46 to defending champion Tatum with 9.5 seconds left, three Trojans were supposed to sprint up from the block while Boies —– stationed at halfcourt — would take the ball down for a layup.

What actually happened: “They played smart,” Boies said. Tatum successfully countered and the Trojans didn’t quite get off the block.

Boies found herself on the perimeter with the ball. So she shot it.

“I said, ‘please God, if you want us to win,’” Boies laughed. 

Boies’ 3-pointer with two seconds remaining propelled top seed Mesa Vista to a 49-47 win over No. 3 Tatum, clinching the Trojans’ first blue trophy. 

The freshman led Mesa Vista (29-2) with 24 points, scoring 16 in a first half that saw the Trojans come out hot before going ice cold. After leading 16-7 at the end of the first quarter, Mesa Vista players combined for just three field goals in the second and third, opening the door for Tatum to build a lead. 

The Coyotes (25-7) took a 49-37 lead deep into the fourth quarter. That Boies already had four fouls only made the outcome for Mesa Vista gloomier, especially in a game with 53 free throws between the teams.

Only with 1:40 left did Mesa Vista start to turn the tide. With the Trojans still slumping, junior guard Aubrey Maestas (11 points) keyed a 7-1 charge late, connecting on a 3-pointer to make it 47-46 with 15 seconds remaining.

Mesa Vista then fouled Avery Henard (15 points), who missed both attempts. The Trojans got the rebound, Boies took the ball up court and called timeout with under 10 seconds on the clock.

That was when head coach Jessie Boies — Aaliyah’s father — called Flash.

“We’ve been in this position a few times this year, about three, four times,” he said. “They knew, to beat us, our motto is you gotta play us 32 minutes to the exact buzzer … And it worked tonight.”

For Mesa Vista, Saturday was the culmination of a run of promising seasons that didn’t quite go the way they were supposed to. The Trojans were a top-two seed the last two seasons, but lost in the semifinals both years.

When practices started last June, Jesse admitted there were some initial nerves about how the year could go. A 6-0 run of games at Center, Colorado heading into the season started to change that, leading him to believe this might be the team to finally get over the hump.

“I told my assistant (Moises Peña), ‘we’re coming for it,’” he remembered. “I feel that this team, they trusted the process — they believed.”

That they did was a testament to Boies and her growth throughout the season. After playing as an eighth-grader last year, she averaged 17.8 points per game and was named a team captain as a freshman. 

“Ever since she was younger, I told her, ‘you’re different,’” Jesse said. “‘You gotta walk different, you gotta think different, you gotta believe different.’”

Saturday, she proved as much — as if it couldn’t have gone down any other way. 

Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at @lenaweereider.