The Española Valley High School boys basketball team continues to dominate District 2AAAA.
The Sundevils crushed the Capital Jaguars 84-55 Feb. 6 in Española after beating Bernalillo 87-57 Feb. 3 at home to improve to 5-0 in district competition.
The Sundevils came out firing three-pointers against the Jaguars. Antonio Romero drained a three-ball to start the scoring and Luis Alvarado followed with another as the Sundevils led 24-8 at the end of the first quarter.
“We’ve been focusing on coming out hard, then continue to flow at a high level of play,” Española coach Richard Martinez said.
Capital outscored the Sundevils 17-15 in the second quarter to trail by 14 points at halftime. The Jaguars continued to claw away at the Sundevils’ lead in the second half and were down 46-36 midway through the third quarter. Española’s junior point guard Rodney Coles had been having a relatively quiet game up until then, scoring just four points, but he was about to explode. A three-pointer started a string of nine consecutive points scored by Coles that gave the Sundevils a 55-38 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
“We couldn’t let them back into the game because they’ll be there at the end,” Coles said. “I hit that three and it gave me some confidence.”
Coles started Española’s scoring in the fourth quarter by sinking a layup after receiving a no-look behind-the-shoulder pass from Alvarado on a fast break. Alvarado made a nearly identical pass to Aaron Aragon Jan. 30 against Los Alamos.
“I just know they’re going to be there,” Alvarado said. The Española fans roared as the Sundevils ran wild, scoring 29 points in the fourth quarter. Coles scored 20 of his team-leading 22 points in the second half.
The victory was extra sweet for Romero, who is better known as “Capital” at Española Valley because he transferred prior to last season from Capital to Española. He had a ready answer when asked what the difference was between the two teams.
“There’s way more leadership on this team,” he said. “That’s very important when you play tough teams like Hobbs.”
The Sundevils will face another tough team Saturday when they host the Hope Christian Huskies from Albuquerque. Hope is the top-ranked team in Class AAA and, like Española, the second-ranked team in Class AAAA, the only loss it has suffered was to La Cueva, the defending Class AAAAA state champions. Hope lost to La Cueva on a last-second three-pointer, while Española lost by a single point to La Cueva. The Huskies are 20-1 on the season.
Martinez doesn’t want to look ahead to Hope. The Sundevils face Taos Tuesday.
“I’m not thinking about Hope,” he said.
Still, he smiled when asked about the Huskies.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Martinez said.