Moriarty brings Taos’ season to a close
RIO RANCHO — For a team one season removed from a dismal one-win campaign, the Taos Tigers came much further than anyone could have reasonably expected.
That didn’t make Wednesday’s seasonending 49-42 loss to Moriarty in the Class 4A boys basketball quarterfinals in the Santa Ana Star Center — Taos’ third defeat in three tries against the Pintos — any easier to stomach. Down one point with a little more than a minute to go after leading through three quarters, the Tigers could almost taste a semifinal berth in The Pit. Because it didn’t happen, Taos wasn’t quite ready to accept the 2017-18 season as a victory in itself.
“It means a lot,” said junior guard Quinn Moon, who was part of last year’s 1-26 season. “Credit to the coaching staff for bringing that positive energy and turning it around. It’s just hard because, yeah, we made it a lot further than last year, but we had so much more potential.
“The sad thing isn’t losing. The sad thing is not reaching your potential. That’s what makes this hard.”
It was Moon who brought the Tigers within 43-42 on a drive through the teeth of the Moriarty defense with 1:10 remaining. It was also the last good look the Tigers (18-11) got at the hoop.
Moriarty (20-8) scored the final six points of the game, while Taos was unable to muster much of anything offensively. The struggles were indicative of a final quarter in which Moon’s layup was the Tigers’ only field goal of the period.
“They made the shots and we didn’t,” Moon said. “They made the plays and we didn’t. That’s all it comes down to. I don’t know if you can attribute it to any one thing.”
All three of Taos’ losses to Moriarty this season were by single digits, and all three games had different identities, said Tigers head coach Hernando Chavez.
“The first time we played these guys for the most part I felt like we dominated and they stole it from us at the end,” Chavez said. “The next time we played them, I thought they did a better job of controlling the tempo. They flat out beat us. Tonight was different in that neither team shot particularly well. It was a little ugly. Those 50-50 calls and balls just seemed to go their way down the stretch.”
It didn’t start out that way. The Tigers raced out to an 11-3 lead after one quarter as five different players scored. Moriarty recovered to take a 23-19 lead into halftime, and the rivals went back and forth from there.
Taos took a three-point lead into the fourth quarter, but that’s when Moriarty’s Caleb Edwards heated up. The senior guard scored 10 of his 17 points in the final stanza, including one stretch in which he poured in eight consecutive points for the Pintos.
“I thought we did a good job of containing Edwards early on,” Chavez said. “He got away from us late in the third and into the fourth. Hats off to them.”
Taos could have benefitted by having more court time from Allen Martinez. The senior post was in foul trouble most of the second half and picked up his fifth whistle in the fourth quarter. Martinez still finished with nine points — tying him with Justin Madrid and Derek Chacon for most on the team — and seven rebounds in just 21 minutes.
“I feel like when I’m posting my guys are more into it,” Martinez said. “They’re not as scared to go inside as when I’m out. Getting that pick and roll, I set it solid.”
His absence was certainly noticed by Moriarty.
“It actually helped us a lot because it cleared out a lot of the lane,” said Moriarty’s Matthew Soto, who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. “He was hard to move out of the way and box out. I was having a tough time with him a little bit.”
Perhaps in a few days, the Tigers can look back and enjoy the season they put together. For now, there’s still a need to lament what might have been.
“It’s a credit to these young men and their hard work that they put in,” Chavez said. “Their willingness to believe and trust in us as coaches was huge for us. It’s bittersweet in the fact because we do feel like we could have made that run to a possible state title. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”