Broncos rally to knock off St. Pius
Top three seeds win easily in quarters
Haile Gleason turned the final five minutes of Tuesday’s Class 5A girls basketball quarterfinal at Dreamstyle Arena — the Pit into a personal highlight reel.
The Kirtland Central senior scored 14 of her game-high 21 points down the stretch and helped the Broncos turn a sevenpoint deficit into a 46-42 victory over St. Pius.
The Broncos advanced to face Los Lunas, an easy winner. No. 2 Bloomfield and Gallup also move on to Thursday’s semifinals. No. 5 KIRTLAND CENTRAL
46, No. 4 ST. PIUS 42: It was dramatic turn of fortunes after the Sartans (19-9) limited Kirtland Central (18-10) to five points in the third quarter and seemed on the verge of putting a victory away. Gleason spent much of the Broncos’ ineffective third quarter on the bench in foul trouble.
“I think what changed was I didn’t foul,” Gleason said with a smile.
The Broncos put together a 9-2 run in the final 2 minutes, 4 seconds that proved to be the difference. But it was a six-minute stretch sandwiched around the end of the third quarter that haunted the Sartans. St. Pius led 33-26 at that time and missed numerous opportunities to build its advantage.
“We held them at 26 for a really long time,” Sartans guard Maya Trujillo said. “We got defensive stops but we didn’t capitalize. We get energy from making shots and just couldn’t hit any.”
Gleason made the Sartans pay for their drought. She hit a 3-pointer to give Kirtland Central a 37-34 lead and was later fouled while shooting from behind the arc with the score tied at 37. Gleason made all three to start her team’s closing surge.
“She stepped up big time,” Broncos coach John Zecca said. “We knew St. Pius had a size advantage and they hurt us with it in the third quarter. But we did a better job defending and rebounding in the fourth and started making a few shots, finally got some momentum going.”
Neither team managed much offense in the first half, but Kirtland
Central took a 21-20 lead to intermission thanks to a late rainbow 3-pointer by Peanut Dryden. She finished with nine points, all on 3-pointers.
Trujillo scored 13 points to lead St. Pius, which outrebounded the Broncos 40-26 but was stung by 19 turnovers, four of which came in the fourth quarter. No. 1 LOS LUNAS 51, No. 8
ALAMOGORDO 32: Los Lunas shooters looked like they could use a strong cup of coffee Tuesday morning. On defense, the Tigers were fully caffeinated.
Top-seeded Los Lunas forced 28 turnovers and dominated the boards. Los Lunas’ trapping zone defense and occasional full-court pressure completely disrupted Alamogordo, which finished with twice as many giveaways as it had field goals (14).
“That’s what we do,” Los Lunas coach Marty Zeller said. “We didn’t shoot very well, that’s for sure, and we got outscored in the third quarter. But defensively we were very strong. Holding any team to 12 points in a half is pretty good.”
That’s what happened in the first half, when Los Lunas led 15-6 after one quarter and 26-12 at intermission. Marissa Weldon scored all nine of her points in the first half to help Los Lunas control the slow-paced contest.
Ashley Blackwell scored a game-high 12 points. Maya Trujillo chipped in nine points and six rebounds for the winning Tigers.
Alamogordo began to find some shooting rhythm in the third quarter. Iyana Harper hit a pair of 3-pointers, and Sierra Martin scored six of her teamhigh eight points during the period.
But Los Lunas’ defense never let Alamogordo make an extended run.
Los Lunas attempted 63 shots to Alamogordo’s 36 and won the rebounding battle 41-28. NO. 2 BLOOMFIELD 57, NO. 7 ESPAÑOLA VALLEY 33: The Sundevils (16-12) hit enough 3-pointers to stay around for a half, but Bloomfield had too much size and versatility to be contained for long.
Alyssa Quintana scored 18 points, Halle Payne added 12 points and nine rebounds and the Bobcats (25-5) moved on to the semifinals with a dominant second half. Capitalizing on a distinct height advantage and slick ball movement, Bloomfield outscored the Sundevils 37-15 after intermission.
Kaylinn Martinez and Kaylee Chavez scored seven points apiece for Española Valley, each hitting two of their team’s six 3-pointers. Bloomfield outrebounded EVHS 42-30 and shot 46 percent from the field. The Sundevils shot just 25 percent. — Ken Sickenger No. 3 GALLUP 61, No. 11
MIYAMURA 52: Ashley Antone scored 16 points for the Bengals (20-10), who pulled away late and advance to face No. 2 Bloomfield. Amanda Mitchel added 14 points for Gallup.
Three consecutive 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter erased a 42-39 Miyamura lead. — Chris Jackson