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Before serving pieces of white, red and light blue cake, Sandia High girls basketball coach Susan Kubala addressed her team and various family members.

"It's not really senior night," Kubala said. "It's program night."

Some Matadors laughed with teammates. Some posed for photos. Everybody seemed to be smiling.

The small gathering in the Sandia gym lobby felt like a birthday party. Part of it was the cake. Most of it was the crucial 45-38 win over La Cueva minutes earlier.

That celebratory, frosted post-game meal easily could have been comfort food for the Matadors. La Cueva beat Sandia on Jan. 30 to take early control of the District 2-5A race. Had the Bears won Friday, they would have claimed the league title and the No. 1 seed in next week's district tournament.

Instead, Sandia won in Sandia style. It was a victory befitting "program night."

It also set up a tiebreaker between the same teams Tuesday night at Valley. To the winner goes the district tournament's No. 1 seed and the all-important homecourt advantage in the district title game.

The first ingredient in Sandia's trademark win: aggression.

Sandia stomped La Cueva into the ground early as though it were some pesky cockroach. Even with a more deliberate, half-court pace, the Matadors were all attack, all the time.

Offensively, Simone Buckhanan (17 points) and Jayne Kanyinda (15 points) routinely diced through the bigger-yet-slower Bears. Buckhanan and Kanyinda took turns at the controls. The Sandia guards each scored 10 points in a half; Buckhanan in the first, Kanyinda the second.

"We just played harder," Kanyinda said. "Last time (against La Cueva), we had no energy at all. We weren't really focused. It was just one of those days."

The second ingredient: defense.

Sandia's extra energy choked the typically sharpshooting La Cueva offense. The Bears mustered just 12 points in the first half. Brenna Freeze, La Cueva's top scorer, didn't net a field goal until the fourth quarter. She finished with 14 points thanks to a late burst.

"We got them to take shots they really weren't comfortable with," Kubala said. "Jayne Kanyinda, when she puts her mind to it, is a very good defensive player. Simone did a good job, too."

Sandia's duo also combined for 12 rebounds, filling a void left by the recent injury to captain Kendra Coveal. The senior forward missed her third straight game because of a right knee injury. Kubala said Coveal, who averages 15 points and 10 rebounds per game, will have further testing done early next week. Her status for the rest of the season is uncertain.

"We worry about it," Buckhanan said. "But it doesn't affect our confidence."

That leads to the third ingredient to Sandia's success: resilience.

Without their best player, Sandia won a big game. The Matadors have lost multiple key players the past two years - to injury and alcohol-related suspension - but have remained contenders. Last year Sandia was a last-second shot away from a berth in the state championship game. This year in Class 5A only Mayfield has compiled a better record than Sandia (23-2).

Kubala does it with homogenization. Everybody's the same. Sandia players often respond to reporters' question with similar, team-centered words. It flows from freshmen to the varsity level.

"Players run the same stuff all the way through," Kubala said. "If somebody goes down, somebody can fill in and they're not going to be unfamiliar with it. We just have to move along."

With one more win, the Matadors will move along to the district tournament championship game. Sandia should land a high seed at the state tournament, with or without Coveal. It's all thanks to the program. And it's not exactly a piece of cake.