Bernalillo towers over St. Mike’s

Horsemen never took lead in loss, end season with second losing record in three years

RIO RANCHO — If you can’t coach height, you certainly can’t teach it, either. In the case of Bernalillo big man Solomon Fragua, he didn’t need a crash course in either category during Wednesday night’s Class 4A State Tournament game at the Santa Ana Star Center.

The 6-foot-7 center for the top-seeded Spartans was, at times, simply unstoppable in leading Bernalillo to a 56-39 victory over No. 8 St. Michael’s. He nearly recorded a rare high school triple-double, finishing with 12 points, 11 blocked shots and nine rebounds to send the Spartans (28-1) into Friday’s state semifinals against No. 4 Moriarty.

St. Michael’s ends its season 14-16, and the Horsemen posted their second losing season in three years with the loss. They are 39-46 the last three seasons, this past one the first under head coach David Rodriguez. They are 47-48 over the last four years.

Afterward Rodriguez talked about the pride he felt from coaching at the school he once attended while his father was the program’s head coach.

He also talked about the impact Fragua had on ending his team’s season.

“Well we kind of served up some shots right in his face in the second half,” Rodriguez said. “I thought [in] the first half, we did a great job of attacking. At times in the second half we did, but you gotta be willing to call that fourth or fifth, whatever it may be. It just didn’t happen.”

The Horsemen never led at any point, spotting the Spartans a 5-0 lead just 30 seconds into the game. They stayed close for most of the night, trimming their deficit to 21-17 late in the first half with a chance to make it a one-possession game, but that one possession produced four shots and nothing to show for it.

Bernalillo responded with an 11-4 run that extended into the second half, then put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter when Fragua turned into a shot-rejecting monster in the low post.

He had just one block in the first half, then had six in the fourth quarter alone.

“To me, it just feels like they’re giving me the

ball and they’re just putting it out there,” Fragua said. “It’s just giving me the opportunity to go and block shots.”

The Horsemen got as close as 41-36 in the final quarter when Jevon Montoya hit the team’s one and only 3-pointer of the game, but Bernalillo pulled away when their guards took over. Reyes Herrera had a team-high 13 points for the Spartans as he and the rest of the back court forced 15 turnovers, several of them at key times in the final quarter.

“It felt like we had more than that,” Rodriguez said. “A bad shot is a turnover, so maybe from my perspective that’s why it seemed there were more turnovers.”

The Horsemen shot just 30 percent for the game and were 7-for-29 in the second half. Much of the decline had to do with Fragua and the 6-foot-1 Chris Garcia and 6-3 Mariano Lobato. The trio of Bernalillo big men combined for 23 rebounds. At the center of it all was Fragua and his shot-blocking ability.

“We talked about taking it to his jaw and we didn’t do that at times,” Rodriguez said.

“It’s just like any post that’s in there,” said St. Michael’s forward Thomas Wood. “You can’t be scared of anybody’s height, size. We’re all basketball players out there. We all know how to play.”

Wood had a team-high 10 points for the Horsemen. Antonio Gabaldon had nine rebounds and four points while Montoya had eight points and Dominic Morgan five.

The Horsemen did force 14 turnovers, one of them coming off an ill-advised half-court alley oop pass from guard Luis Villegas. The pass bounced hard off the side of the rim and went straight to Darnell on the Bernalillo bench.

The coach power-dribbled the ball with both hands and glared at Villegas before pulling him out of the game.

“It’s because getting the ball is such a value with teams like St. Mike’s,” Darnell said. “You gotta make sure you get a good shot or make the best out of it.”

For Darnell the win sends him into the semifinals for the first time in a dozen years, snapping a dubious streak for a coach who has already won a pair of state titles in his long and storied career with Bernalillo.

“I’ve been known as the quarterfinal coach for a long time now,” he said.