Jags have whiplash-causing shift of fortunes
It’s funny how storylines can take drastic turns in the span of a week. When last week commenced, life was good for the boys and girls basketball programs at Capital. The boys — and the rest of the state — were anxiously awaiting a District 2-5A rematch with Española Valley to prove themselves worthy of 1-A status behind the No. 1 Sundevils. Meanwhile, the girls were undefeated in district play with a chance to make the race for first place moot with games against their two main rivals — Albuquerque Del Norte and Española.
By Monday, the stories were vastly different. Both programs lost their best players (Matt Smith and Kyannah Cole), went an unfortunate 0-2 at possibly the worst time of the season, and find themselves battling to regain the edge they had going into last week. To top it all off, they need some help if they are to restore the luster on what might become lost seasons.
For all the similarities in their plight, their paths diverge after that. The Capital boys saw Smith removed from the program after a 56-54 loss at Del Norte on Feb. 6 (it was either his decision or head coach Ben Gomez’s, depending on the source). Coupled with the loss to the Sundevils on Feb. 9, the Jaguars are trying to hold on to a top-six seed for the Class 5A State Tournament brackets that will be announced on Feb. 25.
A Knights loss at Española on Saturday while Capital beats Albuquerque Academy and Los Alamos to finish out the 2-5A season would create a second-place tie with Del Norte. In that scenario, Capital gets a high seed because its overall body of work (a 20-6 record and runner-up finish) supersedes the distractions of last week.
Anything less, however, means Capital goes from gaining a home game for the first round of state to retiring its home whites in favor of the road blacks for the rest of the year as it likely
would drop into the bottom half of the 16-team bracket. That would be quite the precipitous drop in just two weeks for a team that had a strong chance of reaching its third straight 5A championship game.
Still, it’s a better situation then what the Lady Jaguars face. They lost Cole to a torn right posterior cruciate ligament, taking away their leader in points and rebounds, as well as someone who could handle the ball against pressure. Capital’s offense sputtered more often than not against Del Norte and Española, as it struggled to find a scorer go-to enough to alleviate those scoring droughts.
The Lady Jaguars caught a break, however, when Albuquerque Academy beat the Lady Knights on Saturday. Coming into this week, everything hinges on Capital beating the Lady Chargers and the Lady Hilltoppers while Del Norte beats Española on Friday. It would set up a playoff between Lady Jaguars and Lady Sundevils for the top spot in the district and an automatic berth — the Golden Ticket to the postseason because 2-5A is likely to get just one team into the postseason.
That hardly seemed likely last Monday. Then again, a lot can happen in a week.
James Barron writes an opinion column about sports in New Mexico. Contact Barron at 505-986-3045 or jbarron@ sfnewmexican.com.