Silver continues to dominate in Santa Fe’s Horsemen Shootout, routs Indian School 60-40
Colts continue to dominate, eye defending Class 4A state champion Hope’s crown
Whether it’s justified or not, the question seems to come up this time every year. “Hmmm, Hope seems vulnerable. Is this the year someone gets them?”
Minus the memorable hiccup of 2012, the universal answer for much of the past decade has been a universal “no.”
Maybe, just maybe, things will be different this March.
With the five-time defending boys basketball Class 4A state champs meandering around with an 8-7 record entering the weekend, a handful of candidates have emerged as potential suitors to knock the Huskies off their perch. One of them, Silver, is in Santa Fe this weekend for the annual Horsemen Shootout at St. Michael’s.
The Colts (11-4) picked up their second lopsided win in as many days at the round-robin tournament, routing Santa Fe Indian School, 60-40, on Friday night as Tristin Moore, Jonny Harris and Sal Cruz combined for 49 points against the Braves (8-8).
“We’re not a big team but we do have good guards, but Silver’s got bigger guards than us and, yeah, that was a big difference in this one,” said SFIS Jason Abeyta. “Once they get it going, they’re tough to stop.”
The Colts have won four straight by an average of more than 25 points, adding to an impressive resume that makes them a serious threat in a top-heavy 4A poll that includes Bernalillo, Moriarty and Ruidoso.
Making a statement in the Shootout is one thing. Doing it on a regular basis when it matters most is what’s really important.
“A few years ago, we won 22 games and got the 7-seed at state,” Silver head coach Brandon Siqueiros said. “I called up coach [Ron] Geyer and asked him what we needed to do and he told me, ‘Coach, you have to come north if you want to get better.’ I knew what he meant. We had to come to Santa Fe, to Albuquerque, to play the teams around here, like Española. If we were ever going to get better, we had to go north.”
The head coach at St. Michael’s until last season, Geyer invited Silver to the
Shootout after that conversation and the Colts have been coming back ever since. They have been simply dominant the first two days this weekend, pounding the host Horsemen on Thursday and using a late second-quarter surge to open a 15-point lead on SFIS at halftime en route to the win.
Moore led the way with 20 points while Harris had 14. The pair hit three 3-pointers in that critical stretch in the second quarter. SFIS simply had no consistent answer for the Colts’ slew of guards.
“I’ve got two seniors and nine juniors and they’ve all gotten used to coming on these long road trips,” Siqueiros said. “I see what Geyer meant. Coming north, it’s like going to an entirely different state. You have to get used to the teams, the refs, the gyms, thier fans. It makes everyone on my team better; myself and my coaches included. We had to do this if we were ever going to do something at state.”
If, two months from now, that includes taking down Hope and finally putting an end to the Huskies’ stranglehold on the blue trophy, then Siqueiros said it will all be worth it.
Coming into the weekend, six teams in 4A had a better overall winning percentage than Hope.
“You’re not going to get me to say we’re that team that’s going to get them,” Siqueiros said. “They’re doing what we’re trying to do, and that’s play all the best teams from up here. Them losing a few times doesn’t mean anything. They’re still the best team out there. Wins and losses don’t mean a thing right now.”
Abeyta agreed. Despite getting a teamhigh 14 points from Kurt Candelaria against an overwhelming Silver lineup that’s deeper and more experienced than most clubs in 4A, he wasn’t even close to being ready to saying now is the time that Hope takes a backseat to anyone.
“There’s a lot of good teams out there like Bernalillo [16-1] and [Silver] and teams like that,” Abeyta said. “But Hope’s still Hope and until they get beat in March, they’re No. 1.”
ST. MICHAEL’S 69, PORTALES 67 (OT)
Jevon Montoya to the rescue. A night after his Horsemen (6-10) trailed by as many as 32 in a blowout loss to Silver, the St. Michael’s senior came through in the clutch — twice — to help his club avoid a monumental collapse against the Rams (9-6).
The Horsemen had a 20-point halftime lead evaporate completely before Montoya stepped to the free throw line with 15 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime by hitting a pair of free throws.
He then converted four more in the final 25 seconds of OT to ice it.
“The two at the end of the fourth quarter were way harder to make,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure, so all I’m thinking as I go up there is just try to relax and put them in. It wasn’t easy, though.”
Montoya finished with 19 points, leading four Horsemen in double figures. Thomas Wood had 14, Dominic Morgan 13 and Antonio Gabaldon 10.
The win snapped a seven-game skid for St. Michael’s.
It all offset a big night from Portales guard Tyrese Dawson and forward Vince Gardner. Dawson had 22 points, 13 of which came in a third quarter where the Rams outscored St. Michael’s 28-9. Dawson had four 3-pointers in the period, one of which beat the buzzer to cut the Horsemen lead to 49-48.
Gardner added 21 points, 15 of which came in the second half.
The Shootout wraps up at 5:30 p.m. Saturday with Portales facing Silver and the intracity matchup between St. Michael’s and SFIS tipping off at 7 p.m.