Poor rebounding dooms Waldorf
The Santa Fe Waldorf boys basketball team was one rebounder away from advancing in the District 1-1A tournament on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, that rebounder transferred to Colorado a month ago.
The Wolves could not keep the aggressive Coronado Leopards off the glass in the second half of the 1-1A opening-round game in Gallina, and Coronado advanced to the quarterfinal with a 61-49 win. The win ends Waldorf ’s season at 7-12.
Waldorf got off to a strong start, taking a 31-28 lead into the locker room at the half, but those shots didn’t fall in the second half. And second-chance opportunities were scant. The absence of Kofi von Lersner, a 6-2 junior forward, hurt the Wolves after he transferred to Denver in mid-January.
“The game came down to rebounding, and we could have done a little better job at it,” Waldorf head coach Enrique Otero said. “That was a key — we didn’t rebound good enough.”
Coronado (8-16) held Waldorf to seven points in the third quarter and took a 45-38 lead and never looked back. Tim Fuchs led the Leopards with 28 points, and Julian Madrid added 14. Liam Otero led Waldorf with 28 points, while Joaquin Deprez added 10.
GIRLS WEST LAS VEGAS 61, ST. MICHAEL’S 33
The Lady Dons were down early, but that just meant their knockout blow came a little later than anticipated in a 2-4A quarterfinal in Gillie Lopez Gymnasium.
The Lady Dons (18-9) play at Pojoaque Valley in the semifinal for a spot in the district championship game Friday at Las Vegas Robertson.
St. Michael’s (10-17) took an 8-2 lead early in the first quarter, but West Las Vegas weathered the rough start to go on a 28-8 run that ended with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Jenna Bustos at the half for a 30-16 lead. The Lady Dons put the game away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lady Horsemen 20-1 the rest of the way.
Bustos had 20 points on the strength of four 3-pointers, while Briana Marquez had 10 of her 13 points in the first half.
“They shot pretty well,” Lady Horsemen head coach Martin Esquibel said. “We stayed with them in the first quarter, but then couldn’t keep up the defensive pressure.”
Karisa Baca had six points to lead St. Michael’s.
MONTE DEL SOL 41, SANTA FE PREP 23
The box-and-one the Blue Griffins employed to stop Lady Dragons leading scorer Alejandra Castillo was thwarted by a pair of eighthgraders.
Sister Sonya Castillo had 15 points, and Araceli Peña added eight to carry the offense. Monte del Sol (4-15) led 7-2 after a quarter and 19-12 at the half. A 12-3 spurt secured the Lady Dragons’ spot in the 2-3A semifinal at McCurdy on Thursday.
“When we put Sonya in, she was very productive, and Araceli had to handle the point guard position and did a very good job with that,” Lady Dragons head coach Ray Roybal said.
Alejandra Castillo finished with 13 points, most of them in the second half. Prep (0-18) had Nia Moquno lead the way with eight points.
ACADEMY FOR TECHNOLOGY AND THE CLASSICS 46, DESERT ACADEMY/SANTA FE WALDORF 23
The Phoenix’s defense rose to the occasion, holding the Wild Wolves (7-17) to just two firstquarter points and building a 25-8 lead at the half of a 3-3A first-round game in Pecos’ Louis G. Sanchez Memorial Gymnasium.
“We did a three-quarter court press that gave them some problems,” ATC head coach Mike Cintas said. “It caused a few turnovers that was the first time we used that defense all season.”
Ashley Zapata led the Phoenix (9-16) with 20 points, and Felicity Sealy added 14. The margin allowed Cintas to use his bench and get some younger players some experience. So eight grader Cadence Gonzales scored her first varsity bucket in the process.