Visiting Tigers take down Horsemen in double overtime
Tigers now in sole possession of No. 1 spot in District 2-4A
The bank was open late Friday for the Taos boys basketball team.
With his team trailing by three in the closing seconds of the first overtime period in PerezShelley Memorial Gymnasium, Taos point guard Quinn Moon grabbed the reins, dribbled the ball down court and saved the day for the Tigers by banking in a 3-pointer from the top of the key. The shot, which came with just 15 seconds left in the extra session, helped force a second OT where the visitors got the tiebreaking points early on from center Allen Martinez en route to a 71-65 victory over St. Michael’s in a big District 2-4A matchup.
Martinez scored five of his team-high 18 points in the second OT, leading four Taos players in double figures.
Afterward, it was that unconventional bomb that was on people’s minds.
“The banks stay open 24 hours in Santa Fe,” Moon said. “I got lucky, but that’s what happens. When you play hard, good things happen.”
“That play is exactly how I drew it up,” joked Taos head coach Nando Chavez. “But, really, in games like this you need breaks because both teams are so even and a play like that can decide things.”
Taos (11-9, 2-0) moves into sole possession of first place in the 2-4A standings while the Horsemen (7-12, 1-1) slid back after opening the district schedule with an impressive road win at Las Vegas Robertson.
“It’s early and everyone’s still in it, especially since they have to play the same schedule we do and we get one more chance at them up there,” said St. Michael’s coach David Rodriguez. “There’s all that coach speak about how you got to defend your home court and all that, but all we can do is go out and get the next one.”
Early on there was little Rodriguez could do to get his team going. The Horsemen came out ice cold, missing on 16 of their first 19 shots. Were it not for more than a dozen Taos turnovers in the first 10 minutes, the Tigers may have done more damage. St. Michael’s led 25-24 at halftime and stretched it to 40-32 late in the third quarter. As good as things looked, Rodriguez said he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the way his team was operating. “All night long we didn’t execute our man-offense,” he said. “Had we done it, we could have gotten to the free throw line a little more, maybe gotten inside a little more. For whatever reason we didn’t do that and, yeah, that hurt us.”
Taos eventually tied it in the final minute of regulation on a baseline jumper with 46 seconds left by Derek Chacon, which was followed at the end of the first OT by Moon’s shot. The Tigers took the lead for good when Martinez
opened the scoring in the second OT with a three-point play to put them up 64-61.
An offseason transfer from Questa, Martinez got most of his points within a few feet of the basket as the Horsemen had a tough time keeping him away from the glass.
“Our post play wasn’t what I thought it should have been,” Rodriguez, adding that previous scouting trips to see Taos didn’t indicate that Martinez was a significant scoring threat down low. “But he played like he was [Friday].”
Jevon Montoya had 19 points to lead St. Michael’s. He made four critical free throws in the first overtime while Dominic Morgan scored five of his nine points in the two extra sessions. Antonio Gabaldon and Victor Otero each had 10 points, although both were held scoreless after the third quarter.
When asked how good his team could be given the wideopen feel to the 2-4A race, Chavez deferred all questions until later in the season.
“It’s just one win for us, nothing more,” he said. “This one is so early that it doesn’t mean anything if we can’t keep it going. Winning here in this gym against a good St. Mike’s team is obviously huge, but we have so long to go.”
Moon wasn’t so skittish when asked the same question.
“This win, it’s huge because it gives us a little bit of control in the district,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about how good we are. I just know that we have potential. New coach, new players, new system. People don’t have to know about us yet but, yeah, we’re coming.”