La Cueva stymies Santa Fe High in second half
ALBUQUERQUE — Sometimes the beginning can also mark the end.
Such was the case Saturday night as host Albuquerque La Cueva held Santa Fe High scoreless for almost the entire first quarter on the way to a 75-60 victory in a District 2-6A boys basketball game.
The Demons couldn’t match up with the Bears height-wise, but it was some very cold shooting that was the difference early. Santa Fe High had plenty of good looks at the basket throughout the first quarter, but the shots simply wouldn’t drop.
La Cueva (11-5 overall, 3-0 in 2-6A), which wasn’t exactly setting the gym on fire either, started to take advantage of its size inside, which opened up the perimeter. The Bears scored the game’s first 12 points and led 12-3 after the first quarter, with Antonio Lovato getting the Demons’ only points with 18 seconds left in the period on a three-point play.
“We just had a super-slow start, and it really messed up our psyche,” said second-year Santa Fe high head coach Zack Cole. “La Cueva is very good, but after that start you could see by our body language that we lost a lot of confidence.”
The shaky start stretched into the second quarter. The balanced Bears got back-to-back 3s by Tyler Aeilts and Lawrence Calai, then Calais added a breakaway layup and a free throw to make it 21-3.
La Cueva opened up margins of 27-7 and 30-9 before the Demons (9-9, 1-1) finally started to find the range.
Victor Salcido and Isaiah Andermann each hit a 3 during a 9-0 Santa Fe run. But the Bears closed the half with another 3 from Calaisto make it 33-18.
The Bears stretched it to 40-20 in the first 90 seconds of the second half and led 62-37 after three quarters.
Still, the Demons showed plenty of fight in the final eight minutes.
“You’ve got to give Santa Fe a lot of credit for how hard it played in the second half,” said La Cueva head coach Frank Castillo, who notched his 699th career victory. “Their press got to us. It’s not like we don’t know how to break the press, but Santa Fe got the momentum and our kids needed to be mentally stronger to finish.”
The Demons cut it to 62-43 just more than a minute into the final quarter and got within 68-56 with just less than three minutes left in.
“I was trying to give us a spark, and I needed to get myself going as well,” Andermann said. “We did a good job of fighting back and not quitting, but we just got too far behind at the start.”
Andermann had seven of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, while freshman Fedonta White led the Demons with 12 and Lovato added 11.
La Cueva, which got a gamehigh 21 points from Calais, 20 from Derek Aeilts and 18 from Tyler Aeilts, closed out the game from the foul line. Tyler Aeilts is a 6-foot-4 senior while his brother is a 6-3 sophomore. The Demons only have two players on their roster taller than 6-foot.
“Their height made it really tough,” Cole said. “But we had plenty of good looks and just didn’t make the shots that we normally make. It was a good learning experience, and the good thing about district is we get to play them again at our place.”
The Demons first have a quick turnaround with a game at Clovis on Tuesday. Castillo will go for his 700th win Tuesday at Albuquerque Sandia.