Garcia, Sartans hold off Gallup
Moriarty, Hope, Evangel Christian, Menaul, Belen among metro winners
Senior Nick Garcia scored 21 points and hit a career-best six 3-pointers as the St. Pius boys basketball team beat visiting Gallup 58-47 on Saturday night in the first round of the Class 5A state tournament.
St. Pius (16-10) poured in eight 3s, but it was defense that set the tone for the host team. The Sartans used aggressive man-to-man defense to force 29 Gallup turnovers and never allowed the Bengals (19-11) to get comfortable in their half-court defense.
“We worked on that all week,” St. Pius coach Damian Segura said. “Gallup’s guards are really athletic so we really increased our pressure on the perimeter. It paid off.”
Gallup fans far outnumbered St. Pius supporters in a packed gym, but the Sartans never allowed the Bengals faithful to get too revved up. Garcia buried a pair of early 3-pointers as St. Pius grabbed an early 14-4 lead.
“It’s always fun playing in front of a crowd like that,” Garcia said. “It’s just extra motivation.”
The Bengals trimmed the deficit to 14-10 at the end of one quarter, but St. Pius put together another surge in the second. Daniel Vigil hit a 3-pointer and scored seven of his 13 points as the Sartans built their advantage to 30-17 at halftime. Gallup had 11 turnovers in the second quarter.
The Bengals were able to get their transition game rolling in the third quarter and trimmed a 33-17 deficit to 36-28 on a Josh Lynch layup. But Garcia hit three more 3-pointers in the quarter to help St. Pius fend off the comeback try.
“My shot felt good in warmups,” Garcia said. “I’m just glad it carried over to the game.”
Gallup caused the Sartans some trouble with full-court defensive pressure in the fourth and got as close as 49-42 with 2:29 remaining. But the Sartans settled down, forced the Bengals to foul and hit enough free throws to put the victory away.
St. Pius plays Española Valley at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Pit in the quarterfinals.
— Ken Sickenger
ALSO IN 5A: Each of the other top-eight seeds also won firstround games, led by No. 1 Española Valley, which beat Valencia 68-51, and No. 2 Los Lunas, which beat Goddard 64-48.
Belen, Capital, Artesia, Roswell and Kirtland Central also advanced.
The third-seeded Eagles roughed up district rival Grants 56-29 in their victory, and Belen moves on to face Roswell in the quarters on Wednesday at 8 a.m. at the Pit. Los Lunas faces Kirtland Central at 3 p.m. Wednesday, also at the Pit.
Class 4A
No. 1 BERNALILLO 83, No. 16 HOT SPRINGS 34: At Bernalillo, Reyes Herrera scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in a dominant third quarter as the Spartans cruised into the quarterfinals.
Bernalillo (27-1) will meet No. 8 St. Michael’s on Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. at the Santa Ana Star Center.
It was the 11th straight victory for Bernalillo, which has won 37 of 40 games dating to the end of last season, and is a top seed in the state tournament for the first time in 31 years, said head
coach Terry Darnell.
“Since we started the season with the 16-0 run, we’ve had that target (on our backs),” Darnell said. “But we’re ready for it.”
The 16-win run to start to the season was the best in program history, Darnell said, as is the team’s current record.
“But we still have some work to do,” Darnell said, who guided the Spartans to back-to-back state championships in 2004 and 2005.
With starting guard Fernando Villegas hampered by an injury, and Villegas’ twin brother on the bench with foul trouble much of the game, Darnell’s deep bench keyed a second-quarter offensive surge.
Backup forward Mariano Lobato had three early buckets in the quarter, while reserves Aron Neely and Davin Deuel also split a dozen points down the middle.
Deuel followed Herrera’s game-high with 16, Neely scored 13, and Lobato 10.
“Any given night, those guys can come off the bench and put up points,” Darnell said. “But our stronger defense is with those guys. We’re quicker and faster.”
— Patrick Newell ALSO IN 4A: There were no first-round upsets, although No. 9 Sandia Prep pushed St. Mike’s to overtime on Saturday night before falling 72-65.
No. 4 seed Moriarty held off West Las Vegas 71-65, as the Pintos advance to face No. 5 Taos.
No. 3 Hope Christian routed Robertson 95-64 behind 22 points from Collins Evans, and the Huskies will face Portales in the next round. No. 2 seed Silver had a rough time Saturday, holding off No. 15 Socorro 45-40.
OTHER CLASSES: Class 3A saw each of the eight higher seeds advance. … No. 10 seed Escalante was the lone upset winner in 2A, knocking off seventh-seeded Tatum. Also from 2A, No. 5 seed Menaul defeated Cliff 72-60. … From 1A, Grady and Albuquerque’s Evangel Christian were lower-seeded upset winners Saturday night. Evangel, the 12 seed, topped New Mexico School for the Deaf, 52-37.