Joy and heartbreak in The Pit
Capital boys fall to Artesia; Española rolls on to semifinals.
TALBUQUERQUE yler Alarid wasn’t about to quit — not even in the face of hopeless inevitability.
There were 4.7 seconds left in the Class 5A quarterfinal game between No. 4 Capital and No. 5 Artesia in The Pit on Wednesday afternoon — meaning there were just 4.7 seconds left in Alarid’s prep basketball career. The Capital senior point guard took a sideline pass from sophomore T.J. Sanchez and flung the final shot of his career. The 22-foot 3-pointer rattled in from off the backboard as the buzzer sounded. With Artesia’s 65-63 win over the Jaguars, the Bulldogs advance to a 5A semifinal against No. 1 Española Valley at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in The Pit.
In Alarid’s final game as a Jaguar, he scored a career-high 30 points and hit five 3s to keep his team within
striking distance of the bigger, stronger Bulldogs, who dominated the paint to the tune of a 38-16 rebounding advantage. He left the court in tears, having missed out on a chance
to play in a third straight 5A championship game — not to mention holding up the blue trophy in celebration of a state title.
All he was playing for in those final moments was pride.
“I didn’t give up,” Alarid said, as his voice cracked for a moment. “Coach said not to give up. I just thought, ‘Keep going till the buzzer.’ ”
In a game of runs, Artesia (21-7) made the final, victorious push with a 7-0 run in a 1:48 stretch that ended with Cody Smith’s breakaway layup for a 62-55 lead as the Jaguars pressed to force a turnover with :33 left in the game. The Jaguars persisted, though, getting a three-point play by T.J. Sanchez and a drive by Chris McKnight to get within 64-60 with 5.9 seconds left.
But Artesia was strong at the freethrow line, hitting six in a row in the last 1:07 until Chaney Hardt missed the second of two shots with 4.7 seconds left to make it 65-60. Even though it seemed impossible for Capital (22-8) to come back, Artesia head coach Mike Mondragon was thankful the buzzer went off as Alarid’s shot went in.
“They’re Capital,” Mondragon said. “I’ve seen those kids play for three years, and we always seem to run into them — two, three years ago [Capital beat Artesia 41-38 in the 5A first round in 2016] and now. I’ve seen them last year when they hit that buzzer-beater against Alamogordo [in the 5A quarterfinals last year]. It seems like they can’t ever die here in The Pit.”
Capital’s death, though, was a slow, laborious one. Artesia simply pounded away at the Jaguars at every turn, as it went inside to 6-foot-3 senior post Taylor Null and 6-6 senior Joe Willingham. However, the intent wasn’t necessarily to score, although Null had 13 points and Willingham added eight. If anything, working the ball inside helped open the floor up for the guards, and they either shot the open jumper or drove to the basket. The quartet of Smith, Kale Mauritsen, Chaney Hardt and Tyler Greenwood combined for 42 points and 10 assists.
“It was one of those things where we wanted to take away the inside play a little bit, because we knew their inside game was going to be effective,” Capital head coach Ben Gomez said. “We’re going to have to suck some more help down into the paint, and if that happens, the guards can start to get more comfortable with their looks. And when you get more comfortable with your looks, you tend to be more accurate that way.”
That was apparent by the midpoint of the second quarter, as the Bulldogs used a 12-2 scoring run to turn a 14-10 deficit into a 22-16 lead on Hardt’s shot off the glass with 4:39 left in the first half. It was the antithesis of Capital’s 70-41 win over the Bulldogs at home Dec. 16, but Artesia was still in the process of molding its team. Half of the Bulldogs were just two weeks into the basketball season after winning a 5A football title.
“We had maybe three offenses in and maybe four inbound plays,” Mondragon said. “At one point, we had more games than practices.”
The guards were responsible for 10 of the points during the 12-2 run, including 3-pointers by Greenwood and Hardt. Capital regained momentum by the end of the half, as Alarid scored four straight points with a layup and a pair of free throws to give the Jaguars a 28-27 lead at the half.
For most of the second half, neither team managed a lead larger than three points, as each had an answer when the other threatened to pull away. Alarid drained a 3 with 3:21 left in the game for a 53-51 lead, and it was the last time Capital enjoyed an advantage.
What undid Capital in the final moments were turnovers. Siji Olivas was called for an illegal screen with 1:48 left and Artesia up 57-55 after Willingham’s layup at the 2-minute mark. Willingham hit a free throw for a three point lead. Sanchez lost the ball on the ensuing possession as he fell on a drive to the basket. Capital, forced to foul, put Hardt on the line three times, and he responded by hitting five of six.
“Turnovers that led them [to get] in transition,” Sanchez said, who had 18 points.
Capital shot 59 percent in the second half and 50 percent for the game, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the size gap.