Demons fall to Sandia after lackluster showing
Santa Fe High’s woeful shooting down stretch put postseason hopes at risk
The Matadors of Albuquerque Sandia gamed the system for the second straight year — much to Santa Fe High’s chagrin. Using the “One Out of Three Ain’t Bad” program, Sandia once again picked the right game to beat the host Demons — in the District 2-6A boys basketball tournament. Thanks to 19 points from Dylan Perry and a 13-for-26 performance at the free-throw line by Santa Fe High, the Matadors gave their postseason hopes a boost with a 49-41 win in the opening round of the tournament in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium on Tuesday night. Sandia, the fifth seed for the second straight season, takes on No. 3 Albuquerque La Cueva on Wednesday night.
Last year, the Matadors made a run to the 2-6A championship game that helped them nail down the 16th and final seed in the Class 6A State Tournament. Facing daunting odds to make it into this year’s bracket, Sandia
is going with what it knows.
“You know, last year it was almost the exact same situation,” Matadors head coach Alvin Broussard said. “I think I remember the score [against the Demons] being almost exactly the same.”
That’s a good memory Broussard has, because Sandia beat Santa Fe High 47-42 in the district tournament last February, but that semifinal win completed their run to the championship game. This time, it might start the journey.
And much like that game last year, Santa Fe High (12-15) stumbled with a lackluster performance.
Of course, it didn’t help that senior wing Victor Salcido sat the first half for a violation of team rules, but the Demons started off strong, going 3-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc while mixing in some aggressive drives to the basket.
When Jonah Baca knocked down a corner 3 with 6:48 left in the first half, Santa Fe High had momentum and a 19-6 lead. That’s when desperation was the mother of invention. Sandia (10-15) opted for a 1-2-1-1 press that rattled the Demons.
They missed their last five shots and turned the ball over three times as the Matadors went on a 14-0 spurt to end the half to take a 20-19 lead.
Much of the damage came in the final 3 minutes, as Sandia scored 12 unanswered points thanks to a pair of steals and a pair of Santa Fe High misses.
“When they started pressuring us, we kinda freaked out a little,” senior Isaiah Andermann said. “Instead of taking our time and pacing ourselves, we freaked out and that led to a few turnovers.”
Perry got the rally started with a driving layup with 2:39 left to get the Matadors into double figures at 19-10, then came a Shy Buck-Elk three-point play off a steal and layup and a Ben Quintana 3 that had the lead down to 19-16 at the 1:30 mark. A Quintana steal led to a Perry layup just 16 seconds later, and Perry capped the run with a shot off the glass with 38 seconds left for a 20-19 lead.
The scoring blitz was so out of character for Sandia, which played with such a deliberate tempo in the previous two games that it appeared to want to avoid an uptempo game.
“We got to mix up styles of play,” Broussard said. “We have to do what we can to generate some wins and that fire. Tonight, they played with a fire and we were able to execute with our energy and with that press.”
Sandia dedicated much of the second half to limiting the number of open looks the Demons got form the perimeter, especially after they hit their first three shots of the second half from beyond the arc to spark a 12-2 run to forge ahead 31-26 after Salcido’s triple at 4:05 of the third.
It was the last 3 Santa Fe High, as it managed just two more shots from outside after that.
The Demons were heady enough to attack the basket, but a recurring problem made one more visit before the season ended. After making six of their first eight shots from the line, they were just 7-for-18 after that. A 1-for-8 stretch prevented Santa Fe High from keeping up with Sandia, and when Antonio Lovato missed a pair with 5:03 left, the Matadors led 36-32. By contrast, Sandia was 9-for-11 by that point.
“To me, free throws are all mental,” Demons head coach Zack Cole said. “It’s funny how teams can make them when they have the lead because the pressure is not quite there.
“When you’re down and you know these are important, sometimes, kids feel the pressure a little more and you miss them. We got to work on that because you earn to get to the free-throw line by taking the hard foul and getting to the basket. You got to reward yourself and reward your team.”
And woe is the team that rewards the Matadors with a lead in the fourth quarter, as they methodically moved the ball around and forced Santa Fe High to trap and press to get the ball back. Sandia fashioned a 10-2 run to expand the lead to 46-36 when Perry hit one of two on a technical foul called on Baca after he fouled him on a layup with 2:29 left.
While the Matadors continue to build their case for an at-large spot, the Demons await their fate, which will be determined by the New Mexico Activities Association. Cole felt confident his team worked hard enough through a challenging regular season schedule to put itself in a good position for a spot in the 16-team field.
He saw the Demons competing with Piedra Vista, the Matadors and Carlsbad for one of last few spots.
The good news for the Demons is that the better Sandia performs, the better their chances grow because they finished ahead of the Matadors in the 2-6A standings.
“According to the NMAA’s criteria points, I feel like we’re in,” Cole said.
“We had enough wins than some of the teams around us, we finished higher than some of those teams. We feel that, but it doesn’t matter how we feel.”