By Glen Rosales
Special to the SUN
The three local teams that survived last week’s opening round of the New Mexico high school state basketball championships all handily advanced to the semifinals.
Boys
Class 4A
No. 3 Española Valley 69, No. 6 Silver 60
Josiah Fresquez turned in the game of his life March 12 in The Pit for the Sundevils (24-6), scoring 37 points, while Jerek Duda added 19.
“He was special tonight,” Española coach Joey Trujillo said. “We talked about that and we knew tonight was going to be his night. We looked at film and we knew these two guys were going to have their opportunities and it worked out. We followed the game plan. Our defense was pretty darn good. We took care of the ball. We did what we needed to do.”
It certainly was a special performance.
“This has just been my dream to be able to come to The Pit and be able to perform,” Fresquez said. “When I transferred to Española, I knew me, Jerek and Matt (Lovato, who had 10 points) were going to be a special trio to play against. All we needed was a shot and we got our shot and we performed as best we could.”
Class 2A
No. 3 Mesa Vista 58, No. 6 Legacy Academy 32
A key first-quarter run on March 12 propelled the Trojans (25-4) to the substantial victory over the Silverbacks (24-6) and a meeting in the March 14 semifinals against No. 2 Santa Rosa in The Pit.
Mesa Vista used strong shooting from the outside early to combat Legacy’s sagging defensive zone designed to take out star Trojans post Jordan Gallegos.
“This guy right here (Gallegos) in my humble onion is the best player in the state of New Mexico,” Mesa Vista coach Thomas Vigil said. “And he had two points in the first half. When we got to the locker room, he wasn’t talking about his two points. The other guys had 12 because he draws so much attention that other guys get to eat off of that.”
Those other guys were Santiago Martinez and Andres Valdez, who each had 12 points and two 3-pointers at the half. They each finished with 16 points for the game and Martinez added eight assists, while Gallegos had 10 second points to finish with 12 overall.
Girls
Class 2A
No. 2 Mesa Vista 72, No. 7 Eunice 38
The Lady Trojans (26-3) had a game plan to wear down the Lady Cardinals (22-9), and it worked to perfection March 11.
They came in focused,” Mesa Vista coach Jess Boies said of his group. “They had a good week of practice. They were locked in. They knew what they needed to do. We watched a lot of film on them. We knew who their strong points were on the press breakers and it was just a complete team effort.”
That team effort was led, as usual, by Tana Lopez, who put up 26 points with 10 rebounds, three assists and four steals. Hannah Lopez added nine points and Aaliyah Boies also had nine with five assists and four steals.
“These two (the Lopezes) led us, but it was a complete team effort,” coach Boies said. “We only had 12 turnovers total. That’s our best for the season.”
The goal, he said, was to wear them down.
“We gave them some pressure at the beginning and got their feel,” Jesse Boies said. “And then we had everybody come down in the second half, we came down hard on them. They didn’t have the legs and we took advantage.”