Capital wins on turnovers

Rival, defending champion Española upset by Del Norte

The game within the game was one of the more entertaining parts of Saturday night’s opening round contest of the Class 5A State Basketball Tournament at Capital.

Anyone who watched it can attest that the game itself wasn’t all that mesmerizing.

Second-seeded Capital forced 30 turnovers and held visiting Gallup scoreless for the first quarter en route to a 54-38 victory before a capacity crowd on Santa Fe’s south side.

The win sends the Jaguars (23-5) into the state quarterfinals against No. 7 seed Alamogordo on Wednesday morning in the Pit. It will be Alamogordo’s first game in the fabled arena in 11 years; for the Jaguars, it will be a return to the same floor they lost on in heartbreaking fashion in last year’s state finals.

“Maybe it’s an advantage, I don’t know,” said Capital starting center Isaiah Brooks. “We’re not even thinking about that. We’re just focused on finishing our business from last year.”

The Jaguars’ fans were certainly focused Saturday — as much on their own game as they were the one being played 30 minutes up the road in Española. As their arch rivals lost in stunning fashion in another 5A opening round game to fellow district rival Del Norte, word circulated through the crowd as the gym began to empty following Capital’s win.

The fact that the defending state champions were going home early illustrated a point Brooks made just minutes before when asked about Saturday’s game against Gallup. Although the Jaguars never trailed and led by as many as 17 in the first half, the Bengals simply never went away.

They scored four unanswered points to close the first half to get within 13, then trimmed the deficit to six on a bucket by Nate John with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

“It’s the state playoffs,” Brooks said. “They’re all good at this part of the year. You can’t take anyone lightly.”

That includes the tournament’s No. 15 seed. Despite having more turnovers than points until the final five minutes of the game, Gallup was very much alive until four straight free throws by Tyler Alarid and Jeremy Anaya pushed a precarious 40-34 lead with three minutes remaining back to a double-digit margin less than a minute later.

The Bengals never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

Anaya had a team-high 14 points for the Jaguars while Alarid, who ended the third quarter with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the corner, had 11. Brooks was held to four points but he