The Española Valley Sundevils boys basketball team massacred the Roswell Goddard Rockets 74-25 to repeat as tournament champions Dec. 6 and bring an anticlimactic end to the Taos Invitational.
Last year, the Sundevils defeated Goddard 82-74 in overtime in the tournament championship.
“We started banging them down right away,” senior guard Ray Romero said. “It was just one of those games”
The Sundevils fired away from the perimeter from the opening tip off and nailed six three-pointers in the first quarter. Senior guard Donovan Maldonado canned three, Matt Brito sank two and Romero had the other for the Sundevils, who took a 24-8 lead after the first quarter. They extended their lead to 40-14 at the end of the first half.
“We felt if we could jump on them early, we would be able to break it open,” Brito said.
Española extended its lead to 58-19 at the end of the third quarter and cruised to a 49-point victory to improve to 5-0 on the season. Brito finished with 19 points and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. Maldonado and Romero were named to the all-tournament team.
“I’ve been waiting five games for this,” Española coach Richard Martinez said. “Coming out hard and never looking back.”
Tough Road to Title
In contrast to their easy victory in the championship, the Sundevils struggled to survive the earlier rounds of the tournament.
In the opening round, Santa Fe Indian School Braves, a Class AAA school, battled the Sundevils, a Class AAAA school, until the very end of the game before losing 53-45. The score was tied in the third quarter 36-36, and Española led by just three points going into the fourth quarter.
Indian School’s Jordan Naranjo, of the Santa Clara Pueblo, led all scorers with 17 points, and Dulce’s Antoine Salazar added 12 for the Braves. Naranjo was named to the all-tournament team, and the Braves would go on to beat Peñasco and Questa to take home the tournament’s consolation trophy.
Española faced the Roswell Coyotes Dec. 5 in the semifinals. The last time the Sundevils and Coyotes faced each other, it was in the quarterfinals of the Class AAAA state tournament March 12 which the Sundevils won 75-61 in the Pit.
The Sundevils seemed hesitant on offense against the Coyotes and relied on its long-range shooting to take an early 9-4 lead behind three-pointers by Romero and Brito. Roswell rebounded to trail just 11-9 at the end of the first quarter.
The Coyotes took a 19-14 lead in the second quarter behind 10 points by Mark Olesinski. Roswell led 21-17 at the end of the first half.
Martinez talked to his team during halftime.
“I asked them what they were waiting for,” he said. “I told them, ‘What are you afraid of, just go out there and play hard.’”
Roswell opened up a 25-19 lead before Maldonado finally nailed a three-pointer — his first basket of the game. Olesinski answered with a basket, and Martinez pulled his starters and inserted substitutes Aaron Aragon and Rodney Coles into the lineup with Española trailing 27-22 in the third quarter.
Aragon sank a three-pointer to jump start the Sundevils, who swarmed on defense and created turnovers. Coles canned another three-pointer and then came up with a steal and hit a pullup jumper to give the Sundevils a 30-27 lead.
“I put in a little faster lineup,” Martinez said. “Those kids don’t have the pressure on them that Donovan and Brito have.”
The Sundevils led 33-31 heading into the fourth quarter thanks to the 8-0 run provided by its bench.
“We’re a team,” Coles said. “It’s our job to go in with the same intensity and finish what (the starters) started.”
Brito started the fourth quarter with a three-point play. After the Coyotes cut the lead to two points, Maldonado started an 8-0 Española run with his third three-pointer. He finished the run with a pair of free throws to give the Sundevils a 50-40 lead.
Española then held the ball, forcing the Coyotes to foul. The Sundevils finished the game by going 9-of-12 from the line for a 56-45 victory.
Sundevil sophomore guard Jacob Serrano suffered a broken collarbone in the second half of Roswell game after crashing to the floor fighting for a rebound. The substitute will be out four to six weeks, Martinez said.
“We’re beginning to see the real Española team,” Martinez said.