Moriarty is strong at the finish, tops SFIS
Shiprock, Portales, Pojoaque Valley also win
Just when Santa Fe Indian School started to pick up some momentum, Moriarty slammed the door.
The Pintos scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter on the way to a 48-42 win on Tuesday in a Class 4A quarterfinal contest at Dreamstyle Arena—the Pit.
Moriarty joins Pojoaque Valley, its next opponent, top-seeded Portales and Shiprock in Thursday’s semifinals at the Pit. NO. 3 MORIARTY 48, NO. 6 SANTA FE
INDIAN 42: Emerald Russell scored eight of her 12 points during the decisivev run, as the Pintos went up 44-31 effectively removed any drama from the last three minutes of the game.
“That was all coaching,” quipped Moriarty head Joe Bailey. “They just played. It’s a group that’s been playing together a long time. It wasn’t in the offense we’re running. A lot of it was geared off our defense and just letting the girls play.”
Not only did the victory advance the Pintos, but it also erased the bitter taste from a 53-38 loss to the Lady Braves on Feb. 9.
“I’m not going to take anything away from Santa Fe Indian — they play so hard. We did not play well (that first game), and our girls all knew that,” Bailey said. “Tonight, did we play perfect? We never play perfect. But we stepped up and played tonight.”
Senior Alyssa Adams set the tone early for Moriarty. After a slow start for both teams that saw nearly five first-quarter minutes pass without a baske, Adams stepped up to score the first 11 points for the Pintos. She finished with a gamehigh 22 while adding eight rebounds.
“Both teams weren’t really scoring, weren’t really doing anything,” Adams said. “I knew in that moment I had to create something to get all of us going.”
Moriarty never trailed (there were two ties), but never led by more than six until the aforementioned fourth quarter run. Meanwhile, nine players scored for Santa Fe Indian, but only Leanna Lewis (14) reached double figures. The Pintos held the Lady Braves to 26 percent shooting.
“Our program is built on our defense,” Bailey said. “We switched on everything. The girls defensively they followed our game plan perfectly. They switched on every pick. That was our key.” NO. 4 SHIPROCK 58, NO. 5 SILVER 44: After losing six seniors from last season’s Class 4A championship team, it only made sense that the Chieftains would experience something of a youth movement during its 2017-18 campaign.
Still, it would have been difficult to predict such a breakout game from eighth grader Lanae Billy in her Dreamstyle Arena debut. Billy scored 16 of her gamehigh 22 points in the first half to keep Shiprock afloat, and then the Chieftains pulled away from the Fighting Colts with a strong fourth quarter in their quarterfinal matchup.
Billy began the game on fire, making her first five shots from the field — including a trio of 3s — to spark her team to a 26-21 halftime lead.
Billy herself had to admit she didn’t expect such a hot start.
“Not really. I’m more of a passer instead of a shooter,” she said. “I open up the lanes so that people on the outside can shoot. My dad told me, ‘You’re the point guard, you need to start scoring.’ Then the coaches told me I could do it, so I started shooting.”
Silver, meanwhile was led by Aysia Salas, who finished with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Katelynn Limardo added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Fighting Colts. No. 1 PORTALES 58, No. 9 WEST LAS VEGAS 41: Lindsay Blakey had 16 points and 18 rebounds and the Rams (27-2) pulled away from the Lady Dons (19-11) in the second half.
Portales took advantage of its size advantage for a 70-32 rebounding advantage. Taylee Rippee chipped in 14 points and 18 rebounds for the Rams. Still, the margin could have been even greater had Portales been more efficient in the paint. The Rams shot just 28 percent (22-for-78) for the game.
Briana Marquez had 11 points and six assists for the Lady Dons (19-11).
The final margin could have been much worse. Both Blakey (6-of-16) and Rippee (5-of-18) missed their share of point-blank shots, and Portales as a team shot just 28 percent (22-for-78) for the game. — Tristen Critchfield No. 7 POJOAQUE VALLEY 58, No. 2 ROBERTSON 52: In Tuesday’s early game, Taylor Roybal scored 13 points for Pojoaque Valley, which was perfect offensively in overtime.
The Elkettes (22-5) rallied from an eight-point deficit after three quarters to take a fourth-quarter lead. Robertson then tied the game late in regulation on a 3-pointer by Maria Barela, who scored a team-high 12 points.
But Pojoaque Valley was 3-of-3 from the field in overtime to pull away.
Ashten Martinez had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Pojoaque Valley.
Robertson shot 24 percent (16-of-66) from the field.