By Glen Rosales
Special to the SUN
In a rare move, the original girls Class 4A state basketball tournament bracket was reshuffled just three days before play was set to start because of a seeding error in the original pairings, the New Mexico Activities Association announced Tuesday.
And the two local teams were among those most heavily impacted just days before Friday’s tip off.
Española Valley, originally set as a No. 11 seed and scheduled to play at No. 6 Bernalillo, was instead dropped to No. 14 and a meeting with No. 3 Albuquerque Academy, and its national-level recruit, 6’6” junior post Harper Dunn.
And Pojoaque Valley, was right behind at No. 12 and set to play at Valencia but now is seeded 15th and instead goes into perhaps the most difficult venue in the state at No. 2 Gallup.
“It’s a little bit tough,” Lady Sundevils coach Ray Romero said. “It took an hour or so to swallow and once we did, all we can do is look forward and be positive. We’re going strong for Academy.”
What’s difficult is the teams spent two days preparing for one opponent, only to have it switched Tuesday morning.
“That’s what was a little bit upsetting,” he said. “There’s checks and balances, but two days later this happens. We watched two days of film, we had a game plan and then they did this. Now we’re playing another district champion in the first round. That’s a tough pill to swallow. You win the district, you think that will help you down the road and instead you get a 14th seed.”
Elkettes coach Bobby Romero was not exactly thrilled by the switch, either.
“It’s a learning opportunity for our team, our girls,” he said. “We just have to deal with adversity. Life ain’t fair. Sometimes things occur that are out of our control and you just have to be able to turn this into a positive. Gallup is a great team, yes, but so we are we. We can play with anybody we step on the floor against.”
Bobby Romero said the seeding process is imperfect and could use some tinkering, particularly the use of the coaches’ poll, the results of which are not released, as well the NMAA requirement that district champs must be seeded ahead of any other teams coming from the same district.
“To me, the very criteria they use, they need to revise it in my opinion,” he said. “It is frustrating.”
The issue arose Tuesday morning when an unnamed school highlighted a discrepancy in the bracket, specifically Española Valley, which got off to a slow start on the season before catching fire right before District 2-4A play to win the regular season championship. Pojoaque, which lost twice to the Lady Sundevils in league play, rebounded to beat Española in the district tournament championship game.
“We sincerely regret the error and understand the importance of accuracy and transparency in our championship processes,” Dusty Young, NMAA executive director, said in a prepared statement. “The NMAA is reviewing procedures to ensure greater safeguards are in place moving forward. Our commitment remains to provide a fair and equitable championship experience for all student-athletes, coaches, and communities.”
CLASS 4A
No. 14 Española Valley (18-10) at No. 3 Albuquerque Academy (23-5), 6:30 p.m.
It took almost half the season for the Sundevils to start figuring things out, which is not surprising considering the team graduated its top seven players from last season.
A mid-season tournament in Bernalillo proved to be the turning point for the Sundevils.
“It all started at Bernalillo,” Ray Romero said. “That’s where we started playing good ball. Ever since that game against St. Pius, we did turn it around.”
The Sundevils got down 10-0 in the game and “I told the girls to relax and we started hitting shots,” Romero said. “Then we started shooting with confidence. One of my seniors, she told me that it started clicking in that game.”
The improvement led to Española winning 13 of its final 16 games and it came just in time for district play.
“It seemed like the whole team was similar,” Romero said. “We were never great shooters, but we were becoming good shooters. We could have opportunities to win even when our defense wasn’t great. We didn’t always have to rely on our defense.”
Now, Española will need every bit of that great defense against a towering team as Dunn, who averages 14.4 points, 11.3 rebounds and 5.2 blocks, stands nearly a foot taller than Sundevils post Averi Schultz, their tallest player.
What’s more, Chargers point guard Lily Skarsgard is 6-0 and averages 14.5 points and 4.5 assists, while 5-11 forward Addie Spratley puts in 13.6 points.
“It’s going to be a task,” Romero admitted. “But we’re preparing. We’re going to have a good game plan. I have a good, strong coaching staff so we’ll be ready. We’ll be prepared. We have very little height, but we’re going to have a game plan, and we’re going to go there to win.”
The frustrating part is the Sundevils matched up well with Bernalillo.
“We played twice last year and beat them both times,” Romero said. “And we played them this year. We knew we could play with them. We thought we could upset them. For two days we worked on playing them and then we get something brand new.”
No. 12 Pojoaque Valley (20-8) at No. 2 Gallup (24-4), 7 p.m.
The Elkettes have had their issues keeping players healthy throughout the District 2 season, which hampered them during their first two games against Española, but it came together for Pojoaque during the district tournament.
“I think we’re playing better,” Bobby Romero said. “We’re finally getting about where we were. We’re playing about 85-90% of where we were. And hopefully, this next week, we’ll get healthier and get our girls back in shape.”
Still, even at 100%, the coach knows his squad is in for a tussle, especially now that the Elkettes are at Gallup.
“We played them last year and we went to their tournament this year so we saw them play quite a bit,” he said. “We have to show up and play and they’re a great team, but so we are.”
While strong, the Bengals are not quite as intimidating as years past, Romero said.
“I thought they were a lot better last year than this year,” he said. “And we are a lot better this year than last year, so I’m hoping we can make a good game of it.”
And at this point, all Pojoaque can do is put the best face on the situation as possible, Romero said.
“We just have to adjust and prepare and do the best we can in the three days we have to get ready for them,” he said. “If we go in there and knock them off, then we have a heckuva lot easier path to get to the championship game. May as well face the best team right away and see what we do. We respect everyone but we don’t fear anyone. We just have to play and hopefully we can represent the north the best we can.”
CLASS 2A
No. 1 Mesa Vista (25-2) vs. No. 16 Hozho Academy (16-12), 6 p.m.
Where to start with the Trojans, who are as locked in as any team in the state right now?
Well, perhaps it’s best to look at where they’ve been, which is a top flight program that has lost 14 players to graduation in the prior two seasons.
That leaves Mesa Vista with a bunch of youngsters who had no desire to wait around, but instead have gotten right after it, led by coach Jesse Boies’ daughter, freshman point guard Aayilah Boies, who is scoring 17.8 points with 4.3 assists and 8.1 steals.
As a matter of fact, the team is a running-gunning crime spree, averaging 24 steals a game, with Aubrey Maestas, Valery Martinez, Charlene Archuleta, Isabella Gallegos and Jordyn Serrano all averaging at least two thefts per game.
“We were expecting this year to be a little more challenging,” coach Boies said. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s been challenging. And we’ve had growing pains, majorly. But they listen to us. They’ve bought into the culture we’ve built here.”
Maestas does her job of also filling up the hoop with 11.6 points and the rest of the roster all contribute, as well.
“If we can get everybody to come together for the next four games and perform the best they’ve performed, we’ll be alright,” he said. “We all want to see all 10 of them to go off.”
No. 8 McCurdy (21-9) vs. No. 9 Jal (17-11), 6 p.m.
Although Bobcats coach Mel Martinez was expecting a better seed, getting a home game and sitting and waiting for the Panthers to drive more than 400 miles to Española is not such a bad thing.
“We got that home game and that’s going to help us,” he said. “They’re taller than us and they play man-to-man and they’re coming from a tough district, too.”
Perhaps, but there probably are not many districts tougher than District 5.
“I’m hoping that’s prepared us for what’s to come,” Martinez said. “We’ve toughen our schedule just for this time of the year.”
McCurdy will be missing one of its top players in Alyanna Chavez due to injury, but other players have stepped into more important roles. Leading the way, Kaylee Martinez has been providing a scoring punch, as has Isabella Archuleta.
But expect the Bobcats to rely on their athleticism with a few tricks mixed in.
“We’ve been able to press most teams with our full and half-court press,” Martinez said. “But we’re going to rely on a 1-3-1 zone. It’s worked real well for us lately.”