Boys Will Face No. 6 Silver Wednesday at The Pit in Albuquerque
It was a tough, gritty Saturday night on the basketball court for the local boys in the opening round of the high school state tournament, with a few cheers and a few tears.
In the end, half the local contingent survived to move on to this week’s quarterfinals in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, while the others are left to begin planning for next season.
Class 4A
No. 3 Española
Valley 54
No. 11 Belen 50
Despite going cold from the line in the fourth quarter, the Sundevils (23-6) held off a furious Eagles (12-16) rally down the stretch.
Matthew Lovato scored 18 points for Española, including six of the Sundevils’ 10 points in the fourth.
Jerek Duda hit a big 3-pointer in the final quarter among his 16 points and Josiah Fresquez added 15, although he was scoreless in the last frame.
The Sundevils hit all five of their foul shots before the basket suddenly shrunk in the fourth, when they went 1-for-6 as Belen was forced to foul to try and get the ball back — and it nearly worked.
Española led 26-20 and used a big third quarter to build its lead to 44-31 before the Eagles began taking chunks from that advantage.
The win sent the Sundevils to The Pit in Albuquerque to meet No. 6 Silver on Wednesday.
No. 12 Taos 61
No. 5 Pojoaque
Valley 57
One look at the stat sheet and Elks coach Ryan Cordova was able to pinpoint just what went wrong.
“Rebounds,” he said. “We were out-rebounded 25-13. And missed foul shots. We missed nine.”
In a game where every possession mattered and every point was crucial, that’s just too much to overcome.
It was the Tigers’ (17-11) third win in four games against Pojoaque (19-9) and the other characteristic that was inherent in all three of those losses was that Taos dropped the rock in the hole.
“They shot really well in all three of their wins,” Cordova said.
In this one, Taos had seven 3-pointers, and that was enough to create space inside for towering post Malakhai Ely, who had 20 points.
Joziah Salazar finished with 16 points, all coming in the second half. Jordan Lopez had 14, with 10 coming in the first half, and his second-half points all came from the line.
Luke Pacheco added 13 points, but he had none in the fourth quarter.
Consistent scoring was an issue, as well.
Cordova’s son, Joshua Cordova, hit a bucket to close the third quarter and popped a 3-pointer to open the fourth, which the coach thought might be a good spark.
“I liked our momentum going into the fourth quarter,” he said. “But we just got stagnant. We gave up too many buckets. And they shot really well. They’re throwing things in from very deep and they were banking shots in.”
While Pojoaque was expecting a better outcome, Ryan Cordova said the season has been one of growth after the Elks lost a teammate to a fatal car crash in September.
“They’ve already learned the toughest life lesson,” he said. And basketball, it’s just a game. But it’s a good lesson for life. Sometimes in life, you can plan, prepare and sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in the hole. You have to adjust to adversity and learn from it. It’s OK to work hard, prepare and plan and believe and sometimes things don’t work out for you. We’re learning that early, but it’s a good perspective to have.”
CLASS 2A
No. 9 Jal 52
No. 8 McCurdy 51
A foul shot with four seconds remaining proved to be the difference as the Bobcats (19-10) came up just short at home.
“It definitely was not the way we were hoping it would end,” coach Ernesto Espinoza said.
Ryan Montoya had 23 points and Judah Duran added 14, but otherwise, the McCurdy offense struggled to get anything going in the second half.
The Bobcats were able to control the flow early, building a 28-15 lead at the half as Montoya had 15 and Duran had nine to power the offense.
“The boys played really good,” Espinoza said. “They handled everything that we talked about this week. Everything Jal tried to do to us, we were able to counter. When they pressed, we beat it and got easy buckets so the offense worked well. In the first half, everything was going our way.”
But a 3-pointer from Nelbert Cervantes to open the third quarter sparked the Panthers (16-12) and by the start of the fourth quarter, McCurdy’s lead was down to 41-34.
“In the second half, Jal got hot, hit a couple of 3s in the third quarter to get them back in the game, which we knew they would,” Espinoza said.
Then it just became a matter of who would make the clutch plays, and it turned out to be the Panthers, sort of, as McCurdy was called for a dead ball-holding foul, sending Cervantes to the line, where he hit what proved to be the game-winning free throw.
“We had one last attempt,” the coach said. “Ryan took it in stride, had two guys on him, he pulled up and shot a 3, and it just didn’t go. I felt bad for the boys. They played really hard. Under the circumstances, it’s hard to lose like that. You rather play it out and see what happens.”
No. 3 Mesa Vista 46
No. 14 Menaul 44
Trojans coach Thomas Vigil was expecting a tight one, but he sure didn’t want it this tight.
“We’re licking our wounds,” he said. “I knew it would be close, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be that close. We didn’t get the lead until late in the third quarter. We never had a lead bigger than two, the final margin.”
Mesa Vista (24-4) had five players score, with only Jordan Gallegos reaching double figures with 18, eight of those in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers (14-16) had a 19-10 lead at the end of the first quarter and still led 29-24 at halftime.
But Salvador Saavedra’s jumper from the top of the key with about a minute left put Mesa Vista up 43-41. After a missed Menaul shot, the ball caromed around and went out off Mesa Vista. With 44 seconds left, Brayden Chavez buried a 3-pointer from the corner.
“When that went up, I was thinking if it misses and we get the rebound, that could be it because we’ve been real good about closing games out with the lead,” Vigil said. “But he’s a good shooter.”
Vigil then called for a play to free up Gallegos, “but Menaul blew that up,” he said. “But the rebound goes out of bounds back to us.”
Andres Valdez ended up with it off the in-bounds play and drove the baseline to draw the defense to him.
“Menaul really helps well on the drive,” Vigil said. “The primary person drives, and the help came. Valdez dished a great pass in traffic through two or three players and Gallegos made a left-hand layup. A tough left-hand layup.”
The win sent Mesa Vista to Wednesday’s quarterfinals against Eunice at the Rio Rancho Event Center.
“We fought and we clawed and Menaul made us earn every inch,” Vigil said. “They really played lights out.”