LAKE CHARLES, La. – Sometimes it’s not if you make your shots, but when you make them.

Davis graduate Esmeralda Enriquez didn’t have her best shooting Tuesday for Eastern Arizona College in the NJCAA Division I national championship game, but she sure did make them count.

Enriquez canned three 3-pointers – two late in the second quarter as the Gila Monsters trimmed an eight-point deficit to two later and another early in the third to tack onto a lead the tourney’s second seed wouldn’t relinquish – and finished with 16 points in a 57-51 victory against No. 16 New Mexico Junior College.

It’s the school’s first national championship.

Enriquez, who took on her mother’s last name this season. added five rebounds and three assists, and was named the Player of the Game.

“I feel like the difference within this team is not me it’s we,” she said on the ESPNU broadcast. “When things aren’t falling, I know they’re going to pick up the slack and they have my back.”

Making just one of her first nine shots, the Monsters’ leading scorer at nearly 16 points per game on shooting had just two points in the first 18 minutes of the game and EAC trailed 27-19.

But with a couple minutes before the intermission, Enriquez sparked an 8-2 run with a pair of 3-pointers to whittle the NMJC lead to two.

Then, out of the break with the score tied, she drove to the to give the Monsters a 31-29 lead 1:14 into the third quarter. Less than a minute later she sank another trey for a five-point edge.

Eastern Arizona would lead by as many as nine points, before NMJC trimmed the lead to three in the final seconds.

Enriquez, however, knocked down three of four free throws and grabbed a defensive rebound to put away the victory. She finished 5-for-20 from the field.

Danaeja Romero-Ah Sam had 14 points and Eanae Dagons added 12 for the Monsters, while Jada Graves scored a game-high 21 for the T-birds.

Enriquez averaged 17 points in four tournament games for EAC, which finished the season 33-2 and were 15-0 in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Athletics.

Last season, her only one at North Idaho College, Enriquez averaged more than 18 points per game and was voted the Scenic West Athletic Conference Player of the Year, and earned second-team NJCAA Division I All-America honors.

At Davis, Enriquez was the CBBN Player of the Year during the 2022-23 season in leading the sixth-seeded Pirates to their first trip to the Tacoma Dome for the Class 4A state tournament.

Enriquez was a first-team all-conference selection the following season, as Davis returned as the fifth seed, and eventually finished third. She scored a tournament high 86 points and averaged 21.5 points, which was second-best in the tourney.