Española Valley in championship game; Peñasco girls seek title
Aggressive Española beats Artesia in OT, will battle No. 3 Belen in state championship
The bigger they are … J.P. Sena is listed as 6-feet tall, and that might be on a good day for the Española Valley senior forward. Joe Willingham is 6-6 of arms and legs for the Artesia Bulldogs who just wasn’t going to let anybody into the paint and escape easily.
When a spot in the state championship game is on the line, however, size-plus-heart can achieve almost anything. Sena showed the fearlessness of a giant slayer in overtime of the Class 5A boys basketball semifinals Thursday night in The Pit. Three times Sena attacked the rim, knowing full well Willingham was waiting for him. Three times Sena was like a thief in the night, getting to the rim before Willingham could make his presence felt in the paint.
The six points Sena accrued proved to be the pivotal moments in the top-seeded Sundevils’ 63-59 win over the No. 5 Bulldogs (21-8) that advanced the program to its second state title game in the past three years. Española (28-1) plays third-seeded Belen at 2 p.m. Saturday in The Pit for the state title.
Sena, though, wasn’t seeking to be the one to make the crucial plays in that 52-seconds stretch.
“We called some plays to go to the basket specifically, and they worked,” Sena said. “It seemed like it there in the end.”
With the score tied at 55-all as the clock wound down inside of 2 minutes in the extra period, Sena drove in from the right wing and faded away from Artesia forward Taylor Null in the paint to hit a jumper as Willingham stayed on Azaziah Salazar, who was on the left wing.
Cody Smith answered with a pair of free throws with 1:42 left to tie the score at 57-all, but the Sundevils went with a five-out set that opened up the driving lanes. Sena took advantage of the space to secure a foul on Null, and he hit two free throws to make it 59-57, Sundevils, at 1:29 of OT.
Then came the defensive play of the game as Christian Fernandez forced Bulldogs guard Chaney Hardt to the right and he dribbled the ball out of bounds. On the ensuing possession, Sena once again got the ball on the right wing as all five Sundevils were beyond the 3-point arc and he drove past Null for a layup and a 61-57 lead with 55 seconds left. That put Sundevils Nation in a frenzy.
“Credit the guys,” said Española head coach James Branch. “They never gave up, despite the physicality. The physicality! That’s a football team. We’re playing basketball. Quote that.”
Well, the Bulldogs did have seven players who were on the state championship football team, but the physicality went both ways. Artesia head coach Mike Mondragon was matter of fact about the style of play the Bulldogs prefer, but he also didn’t want his team’s athleticism to get overshadowed.
“That’s the way we play; that’s our brand of basketball,” Mondragon said. “We want to use our strength, our physicality and our athleticism. That’s one thing, too. … I’ve seen a lot of tape on [the Sundevils] in the last 24 hours. Not very many teams can stay in front of those kids. And these guys [the Bulldogs] did.”
That, combined with Willingham’s presence to frustrate the Sundevils at times. When Española managed to get a step on its defender, Willingham used his long, lanky frame to block six shots, while also scoring 23 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. It was an effective deterrent, as Española shot the ball from outside of 10 feet on seven of its first eight possessions in the second half.
“I got some pretty good blocks, but I know I couldn’t have done it without them,” Willingham said of his teammates. “It was really them helping me, and letting me to get back into position to play really good defense and we worked well as a team.”
Branch wasn’t necessarily concerned about that trend, especially seeing that the Sundevils hit six 3-pointers to counteract that a little. Senior wing Isaiah Vigil knocked down three of them a night after spraining his ankle in a 61-41 win over Albuquerque
St. Pius X. While he was in tears on the bench Wednesday, Vigil was more than up for the challenge of playing against the Bulldogs.
“These past couple of days have been a roller coaster ride,”
Vigil said. “I woke up this morning sore, but this is my last year and we’re the No. 1 team in the state. I know I couldn’t let my teammates down and sit out this game.”
It was his back-to-back 3s to open the third quarter that pushed a 30-26 halftime lead to a 36-28 advantage 2:07 into the quarter. Artesia didn’t wilt, though. Smith scored nine of his 15 points in the third, as the Bulldogs kept chipping away at the margin until his three-point play off a runner in the lane tied the score at 39-all with 2:12 left.
Much like Artesia’s 65-63 win over Capital on Wednesday, the lead on either side never grew larger than three in regulation. And much like a a Willis Reed figure, Vigil kept making big 3s. His triple from 25 feet at the top of the key with 2:41 left in the fourth gave the Sundevils a 52-51 lead.
“I felt like, on offense at that point, everyone was looking for someone to take that shot,” Vigil said. “We’ve been here before. I’ve practiced that shot, every practice, since I was growing up I’ve practiced that shot. Once I caught it, I felt good and let it fly.”
Still, Artesia refused to yield, as Tyler Greenwood hit a pair of free throws with 1:42 left to cap the scoring in regulation at 53-all.
It merely set up Sena The Giant Slayer to work his magic and give the senior class of eight Sundevils a shot at cementing its legacy with a second state title.
And as every one knows the ending to that oft-uttered phrase … the harder they fall.