Boys high school hoops fans will have plenty of teams to rally around as four local squads have gained at least another week of play with the state tournament tipping off Saturday at home sites.
CLASS 4A
No. 14 Pojoaque Valley (1414) at No. 3 Hope Christian (21-8), 6 p.m.
A strong District 2 run, including reaching the championship game of the district tournament, put the Elks into the state tournament, but they got no favors with a match-up against the perennial championship contending Huskies.
“I was a little bit surprised we’re in at 14,” Pojoaque coach Ryan Cordova said. “I thought we would be a little bit higher. We should have been ahead of St. Pius and Valencia. I thought we could have been an 11 or 12 seed.”
The teams met Jan. 29 in Albuquerque, a game Hope won 75-49, although the Elks trailed by only eight points at halftime.
“We know what to expect,” Cordova said. “We know the directions to their gym and we’ll have a good game plan going in there. It’s always fun when you play Coach (Jim) Murphy. There’s a lot of basketball knowledge and consistency. And they play very well at home, but I think we’re playing much better than even three weeks ago. We’re going to go in there and give it our best shot.”
Hope plays a tough, rugged brand of defensive basketball, Cordova said, so the Elks have to be patient and attack it with poise.
“They’re long,” he said. “They will frustrate you defensively. You can’t come down and shoot, or make one pass and shoot. You have to make them play defense for 15-30 seconds possibly, and shot selection is big. We have to take the mismatches if we can find them.”
Pojoaque will look for strong performances from top scorers Joziah Salazar, who is averaging 14.3 points, and Serafin Mendez, who is at 13.6 with 8.4 rebounds.
“We have some pretty good guards who can get by people,” Cordova said. “And my bench has been playing really well. I like the way my bench is playing right now.”
And the key will be protecting the boards on both sides of the court.
“We have to keep them off the glass,” the coach said. “We have to get two or three opportunities on offense once in awhile, opportunities that make sure we’re not one and done. In the second half against them, they out-rebounded us and out-executed us. We have to be able to box them out.”
CLASS 2A
No. 3 Mesa Vista (23-4) vs. No. 14 Hozho Academy (1910), 5 p.m.
For a good part of the season, the Trojans have hovered around the top spot of the rankings, but in facing a brutally tough schedule, they have been honed for this time of the season while conceding a couple of spots in seeding.
And that’s OK with Mesa Vista coach Thomas Vigil.
“I’m fine with No. 3,” he said. “Texico and Pecos have had amazing seasons so I think we were placed in a fair spot. It all boils down to who we play.”
The Trojans will meet a program in the building stages, but one with promise, Vigil said.
“They’ve got some size and they look pretty athletic,” he said of Hozho. “They had a big win at Dulce in the district tournament. I’ve always felt like Dulce is a tough place to play, so winning there, that’s saying something. We’re expecting a war.”
While Mesa Vista is coming off a state runner-up season and returns many players who were a part of that run, this is a new experience this year, Vigil cautioned.
“This is a whole new season, whole new crew of teams,” he said. “It’s a completely different landscape. There are some teams that are scary, so it’s not the same year and we’re not looking at last season to carry us this season. That’s a mistake and we’ll get beat if we have that attitude. We don’t have an easy road to the semis. We don’t have an easy road to the quarters.”
What the Trojans do have is a hardened team that knows how it needs to play to succeed.
“We’ve been in some really tough games,” Vigil said. “Mora and Escalante have played us really well. Those are things that should prepare you for the post season. I feel like we’re in a good place. We’re ready to give everything we’ve got. I feel like we’re well prepared. We’re not taking anything for granted. We want to make sure we lead with our best foot forward.”
No. 12 Dulce (17-10) at No. 5 Mesilla Valley (21-5), 4 p.m.
After stepping into the head coaching role less than two weeks ago, Enrique Talamante is anxious to see how his Hawks respond to state tournament pressure.
“It’s interesting,” he said of the situation in which Dulce is on its third head coach of the season. “But it’s a new season. And a nice long trip from the north side of the state to the south side.”
While the regular season has been bumpy, the team has settled into an offensive juggernaut that looks to outscore its opponents behind the duo of Jaiden Yazzie (18 points a game) and Eric Tsosie (14.1).
“It’s a one-game season now so we have to forget about what we did and didn’t do during the district and regular season,” Talamante said. “We have to make sure we continue to look at it as one game at a time and not overlook any opponent because at the end of the day, it’s all about winning the state title.”
No. 7 Escalante (21-7) vs. No. 10 Menaul (21-8), 5 p.m.
The Lobos will look to get top scorers RJ Atencio (12.6 points per game) and Mateo Torrez (12.0) going early, and rely on 6’8” big man Richard Glover to control the interior against the Panthers, who look to junior Gustas Komparskas (12.3) and J’Quan Samuels (11.9) to provide the scoring punch.