Huskies defeat Portales again; No. 1 Spartans, Colts, Pintos win
It was a case of new venue, same result for the Hope Christian Huskies against the Portales Rams on Wednesday morning at the Santa Ana Star Center.
In a rematch of last year’s Class 4A boys title game, Hope (20-8) broke open a close game with a pair of key second-half runs to earn its fourth victory over Portales (17-13) this season, this one 72-63 in state quarterfinal action.
Hope advances to play Silver in Friday’s semifinals. Moriarty will play Bernalillo, which got past St. Michael’s. NO. 3 HOPE CHRISTIAN 72,
NO. 6 PORTALES 63: Hope coach Jim Murphy knew his Huskies would be challenged by the Rams.
“They’re very good team; they’ve got five seniors that start. They’re long and lengthy and they’ve got some good athletes,” Murphy said. “I was real proud of the boys. We got some good play off the bench. I think we wore them out a little bit with subbing in early in that first half. It’s hard to beat a team four times, but we’re just glad we won today.”
Up 30-26 at halftime, Hope kicked off the third quarter with a 12-2 run predicated on turnovers and transition buckets to take a 42-28 lead. Four Huskies scored during the run.
“I thought the third quarter our defense stepped up. I thought we just pressured a lot better, got after it, created some turnovers, started hitting some easy baskets,” Murphy said.
Hope extended its advantage to 62-44 with less than four minutes remaining in the final period following an 11-3 spurt. Portales would close to within seven points on two occasions in the final minute, but Hope was able to convert its opportunities at the free-throw line down the stretch to clinch the victory. All told, Hope went 30-for-40 at the line, while Portales was 18-for-24.
Johnnie Nitafan led the Huskies with 21 points, and Collin Evans added 15 points and eight rebounds. Chris Ward finished with 11 points and also paced the Huskies in rebounds (10) and assists (four).
Tyrese Dawson topped the Rams with 24 points and 11 rebounds but shot just 7-for-23 from the floor. No. 1 BERNALILLO 56,
No. 8 ST. MICHAEL’S 39: Bernalillo center Solomon Fragua started a block party in the fourth quarter. The 6-foot7 senior blocked seven of his 11 shots over the final eight minutes, and he narrowly missed a triple-double scoring 12 points and pulling down nine rebounds as the Spartans advanced to the 4A semifinals.
“To me, it feels like they are just giving me the ball by putting it out there,” Fragua said. “And they’re just giving me the opportunity to go out and block shots.”
The Spartans (28-1) went through an offensive lull in the first half, but Reyes Herrera helped his club maintain a 28-21 lead at the break scoring 10 of his game-high 13 points.
Herrera capped the first quarter with a step-back 3, and he added a big 3 midway through the second quarter to halt a three-minute scoreless spell.
“We always seem to go scoreless for minutes (at a time), and it kills us,” Herrera said. “But we just have to stay at it and keep pushing on defense.”
Bernalillo head coach Terry Darnell guided the Spartans to back-to-back state titles in 2004 and 2005, but hadn’t advanced past the quarterfinals until Wednesday night. “It’s awesome
to get back there, and I hope these guys will enjoy the ride at the Pit,” Darnell said.
Thomas Wood scored 10 points to lead St. Michael’s (14-16). — Pat Newell No. 2 SILVER 74,
No. 7 SHIPROCK 40: The Fighting Colts (24-4) raced to a 15-1 first-quarter lead and never looked back in a blowout win over the Chieftains (19-10).
Tristin Moore had a gamehigh 27 points and went 4-for-8 from 3-point range, while Jonathan Harris chipped in 21 for the Fighting Colts. Silver’s lead expanded to 22 at halftime and to 31 after three quarters.
Shiprock was led by seven points apiece from Arvin Begay and Cota Nahkai. No. 4 MORIARTY 49,
No. 5 TAOS 42: Caleb Edwards scored 10 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter and the Pintos (20-8) used a strong defensive effort down the stretch to hold off the Tigers (18-11).
It was the third victory in three tries for Taos against Moriarty. All three games were decided by single digits.
Three players — Derek Chacon, Justin Madrid and Allen Martinez — led the way for the Tigers with nine points apiece. Taos was within 43-42 with 1:10 to go but didn’t score the rest of the way.