Hope Christian eliminates Bernalillo
Robertson, Silver Portales also win
RIO RANCHO — The top four seeds advanced during quarterfinal play of the boys Class 4A basketball tournament Wednesday at the Santa Ana Star Center.
No. 1 Hope will face Robertson in Friday’s 9:45 a.m. semifinal in the Pit. Second-seeded Portales will meet No. 3 Silver in the 8 a.m. semifinal. No. 1 HOPE CHRISTIAN 71, No. 8 BERNALILLO 40: The four-time defending state champion Huskies had no intention of feeling the Bern, jumping to an 18-4 lead and rolling through the Spartans.
“It is a little tougher to shoot in here,” Bernalillo coach Terry Darnell said of the Star Center. “But it’s also a little tougher when you have guys guarding you. And Hope is everywhere and that makes it hard.”
Marcus Medina, recovered from an ankle injury suffered in the District 4-4A championship game, scored 14 to lead four Hope (24-5) players in double figures as the Huskies never trailed.
The Spartans (15-14) got 13 points from Noah Leyba, but no other players hit double digits.
Nelson Longmire added 13 points, Cole Yearout had 12 points and seven assists, and Preston Ulibarri had 11 points for Hope. No. 4 ROBERTSON 66, No.
5 WEST LAS VEGAS 54: In a meeting of crosstown rivals, it was Cardinals newcomer Kasean Pryor, a transfer from Chicago, who stole the show, scoring 21 points with drives and jumpers and also delivering skillfully threaded passes to teammates.
“I know they take it very serious,” said Pryor, who went 14-of-18 from the foul line. “It’s the champ of the town. You want to win every game you can against them.”
On the other side of the ledger, the career of the state’s alltime scoring leader D.J. Bustos, who was hampered by a left ankle sprain, came to an inglorious end as he finished with nine points for the Dons (19-9), who got 21 from Isaiha Gallegos.
“He’ll sit around that three and he’s hurt us from out there,” said Pryor, who guarded Bustos most of the night. “I knew I had to take advantage of him being hurt and force him to his weakness, which was to make him go to the basket and putting the ball on the ground.”
Arjay Ortiz added 16 for Robertson (18-8). No. 2 PORTALES 49, No. 7
ST. MICHAEL’S 47: It came down to a judgment call, making some happy and some not.
But the bottom line is Jeremie Karngbaye went to the foul line with 3.7 seconds left and sank free throws to help the Rams (24-4) survive a scare and a late, gametying 3-pointer from Thomas Pacheco.
“They were putting two people on me and as I was about to break, they held me right as I was about to break,” said Karngbaye, who finished with 20 points. “And right then I knew they were going to call it. And my teammates had faith in me to know I was going to make those free throws.”
Horsemen post Adam Tupler, on whom the foul was called, disagreed with the assessment.
“It’s definitely frustrating at that point of the game to come down to a ref’s call,” he said. “But we have to expect it, even if we think it’s different. It all happened really quickly. But from what I saw and felt, we were just in front of him because we knew the ball was going to go there and he just went through us. It didn’t seem like there was enough contact to affect the play at all.”
Pacheco, who moments earlier had hit a game-tying 3-pointer for St. Mike’s (15-15), scored 11. — Glen Rosales No. 3 SILVER 58, No. 11 MORIARTY 42: Despite missing their primary low-post presence, the Fighting Colts broke open a close game in the third quarter.
With Jonathan Harris, Silver’s third-leading scorer and leading rebounder out for undisclosed reasons, the Colts spread the floor and let guards Tristin Moore, Tyler Gonzales and Sal Cruz go to work. The plan was effective, as Silver (24-4) went on a 12-2 run to turn a four-point halftime lead into a 36-24 advantage with 2:43 remaining in the third period. Moriarty (15-14) got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.