Pecos boys fall in semifinal battle to Bernalillo
Pecos keeps it close, narrowly missing chance to force overtime
Oh, so that’s what it’s like to have options.
Terry Darnell was starting to wonder what it even felt like.
For the first time in at least a few years — to be fair, Darnell can’t even recall the last time it happened — Bernalillo’s boys basketball team has a legitimate two-headed monster in the low post to compliment the usual stable of guards at his disposal. One of those big men is a 6-foot-7 senior who looks like a skyscraper in what is the current Class 4A alignment. The other is a 6-3 classmate who is equal parts double-wide space eater and fearsome road grater.
On Friday it all came together in a 71-68 win over Pecos in the semifinals of the Ben Luján Tournament. It sends Bernalillo into Saturday night’s championship game against Pojoaque Valley, an overtime winner over Santa Fe Indian School in a late semifinal that didn’t end until just before 10 p.m.
The third-place game has Pecos facing SFIS.
BERNALILLO 71, PECOS 68
Trailing by as many as nine points midway through the second quarter, the Spartans (8-0) used a 31-12 run over the span of the two halves to grab the lead for good.
Bernalillo’s bigs, the 6-7 Solomon Fragua and 6-3 Mariano Lobato, had a part in it by simply disrupting traffic in the paint while the Spartans’ guards worked their magic inside and out. Reyes Herrera hit four 3-pointers and finished with 20 points while Fragua had 11 points and Lobato chipped in with six.
Pecos kept it close, narrowly missing a chance to force overtime when a Mario Archuleta 3-point shot from the corner rattled in and out as the buzzer sounded.
“We can be pretty good, I think,” Darnell said. “We got all the pieces. We’ve got bigs, we’ve got guards, I got a bench that can play. I think the problem right now is us finding that click, you know? Us getting solid where we’re not up and down during games.”
Already one of the top teams in the various 4A polls, Bernalillo got a stiff test against a Pecos squad whose only losses are to the Spartans and 5A power Capital. Josh DeHerrera led the Panthers (5-2) with 19 points while Carlos Cordova added 16. Archuleta had a tough shooting night and had eight points while Anthony Armijo had 12.
DeHerrera willed Pecos back from the brink in the fourth quarter. With Bernalillo holding a 10 point lead, he had a put-back and then a steal and layup just 20 seconds apart, then
later nailed a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left to get the Panthers within 69-68.
Pecos forced a turnover and had the ball with a chance to win, but a DeHerrera 3-point try was well short with 15 seconds left, setting up the closing moments of Bernalillo’s win.
For Darnell, the presence of an inside game gives him the luxury of seeing what he can do with a lineup that provides plenty of diversity.
“To have a couple of guys I can turn to who play with their backs to the basket, yeah, it opens up a lot of possibilities for us,” he said. “It’s early and if there’s one thing we need to figure out it’s how to balance those things out. It’s going to be fun doing that.”
POJOAQUE VALLEY 57, S.F. INDIAN 56 (OT)
At no point in the first four quarters did Diego Trujillo show the kind of consistency his coach has lauded him for all season. Through regulation against the Braves, he managed just four points and was largely a nonfactor as the game went into an extra session.
“Diego is a dependable player who I know is going to give me the same thing night in and night out,” said Elks head coach Thomas Vigil. “Other guys can be up and down, but he’s always right there.”
It wasn’t until those final four minutes that Trujillo broke free.
He hit a huge equalizing 3-pointer just when it seemed SFIS might run away and hide early in OT, then converted four straight free throws and a steal in a 2.4-second span in the waning moments to help seal it.
He finished with 11 points and was on the floor in the final second to pinch off the SFIS guards and prevent a possible gametying 3-pointer at the buzzer.
It capped a wild final minute in which Pojoaque (2-2) blew a 53-48 lead with 50 seconds left, then used Trujillo’s heroics to help eke out the win. It all started with, innocently enough, a rushed jumper by Isaiah Herrera when the Elks had that five-point cushion, a missed shot that sparked a frantic run of six straight Braves points.
“Just learn and hopefully win, and if we don’t win then find a way to learn anyway,” Vigil said. “This team has to get used to winning games like this and this was a big first step. We’re young. We have a lot of sophomores out there, but we’re going to get there. This one; this one was big.”
Herrera had 18 points to lead the Elks while Isaac Roybal added nine and J.P. Lyon and Avery Torrez each had six.
James Bridges had 16 before fouling out in overtime for the Braves (5-5). Anders Pecos had 14 while Jason Abeyta and Raheem Alonzo each had eight.
OTHER GAMES
The consolation round’s biggest story was Desert Academy having to forfeit its game against Peñasco. With just five players on their roster, the Wildcats were down to four healthy players after Thursday’s opening round.
Rules state that a team can finish a game with fewer than five players but must start each game with at least five.
The Wildcats were forced to forfeit and Pojoaque Valley’s junior varsity took their place. The Elkettes JV beat Peñasco, 69-62, and will face Mora for fifth place as Desert Academy was removed from the tournament.
Friday’s other game had Mora roll past Monte del Sol, 75-54. The Rangers got a game-high 22 points from Carlos Muller and 18 from Jerome Pacheco. Monte del Sol (4-3) had two players in double figures; Peter Luján with 19 points and Isiah Salazar with 18.