Third quarter sinks Demons’ season
ALBUQUERQUE — The Santa Fe High boys basketball team’s season came to an end on Saturday night against a familiar foe.
Fourth-seeded Albuquerque Eldorado, a District 2-6A rival, caught fire in the third quarter and surged to a 54-44 win over the visiting Demons in the first round of the Class 6A State Tournament.
The No. 13 Demons (17-11) led 24-22 at halftime, but it was a precarious at best. The Eagles (20-6) only shot 7-for-22 from the floor in the first half and it was a matter of time before they found their touch.
“You could tell that Eldorado would start making shots at some point in the game,” Santa Fe High head coach Zack Cole said. “We just didn’t want to add turnovers to that. They took advantage of it.”
Senior Oscar Perez’s layup midway through the third quarter pushed the Demons’ lead to 32-29. Back-to-back baskets by senior Tyler Rodgers, who led all scorers with 14 points, made it 33-32 and Eldorado never looked back. The Eagles went on a 16-0 run that carried into the fourth quarter.
“We got a little impatient and like I’ve always told our boys, when we try to do things we’re not familiar with, that’s when we get caught off guard,” Cole said.
Turnovers were a huge problem for Santa Fe, which gave up the more ball more times (seven) than it had shot attempts (six) in the third quarter. Overall, the Demons had 26 turnovers to just 15 for the Eagles.
“If we had taken care of the ball a little better in that third quarter, we could have kept it a lot closer,” Cole said. “I’m very proud of our boys, though, for the effort they gave tonight.”
Eldorado only made one 3-pointer in the first half but caught fire in the second, hitting five. The Eagles closed the third quarter with 3s from Rodgers, junior Mike Mounho and sophomore Tyler Quintana. Mounho scored all 13 of his points in the second half, while sophomore Kameron Valencia added 11 points for Eldorado.
The late surge overshadowed a solid first half for the Demons, who gave the Eagles fits on both sides of the ball.
“That’s what I keep telling our guys, we’ve got to play defense all game,” Eldorado coach Roy Sanchez said. “We didn’t do a very good job with our shot selection early. Santa Fe played hard in the first half, they played harder than us.”
The Demons had leads of 11-5 in the first quarter and 18-13 in the second, but could never really pull away. The Eagles only led once in the first half, at 20-18.
Santa Fe was led by sophomore Antonio Lovato’s 13 points. Senior Everett Robinson, who battled foul trouble in the first half, scored eight of his 10 points late.
All told, the Demons will lose seven seniors, with four of them accounting for a combined 24 points in Saturday’s loss.
“Oh, man, they’re amazing, they’re tough as nails,” Cole said. “Their character is amazing. They’re the reason we were able to have such a tough group. We’re going to miss them very much.”
Eldorado moves on to face Albuquerque Volcano Vista, which upset defending 6A champion Rio Rancho 77-74, in the quarterfinals next week in The Pit.