St. Mike’s rallies to beat Bernalillo
The St. Michael’s Lady Horsemen keep finding ways to win. This time, it was via their 5-foot point guard, Cia Alvarez.
Her floater with 2.4 seconds left gave St. Michael’s a 39-37 win over Bernalillo in a nondistrict girls basketball game Tuesday in Joseph Kloeppel Gymnasium.
The Lady Horsemen found themselves down by as much as 10 points in the fourth quarter before rallying to tie the score at 37-all heading into the final minute
St. Michael’s held onto the ball for the almost all of the final 34 seconds before setting up a bounce pass to Alvarez in the paint and she hit her game-winner. The Lady Spartans never got a shot off in the final seconds. Lady Horsemen head coach Martin Esquibel said it was heartening to see Alvarez contribute.
“She was a little bit of foul trouble [in a 40-35 win over Valencia on Dec. 7], then she missed the next game [a 56-51 win over Los Alamos on Dec. 8] because of the ACTs,” Esquibel said. “I think her hitting that and it being the game winner was able to build her confidence.”
Carisa Padilla had a team-high 17 points to lead the Lady Horsemen (5-3), and Alvarez added nine. Bernalillo’s Julia Aragon had a game-high 20 points, but Esquibel said Lady Horsemen wing Joelyn Fernandez’s defense made Aragon work harder for her points.
POJOAQUE VALLEY 39, ABQ. DEL NORTE 19
The Elkettes played their best game of the season by head coach Seledon Martinez’s estimation and it showed as they took a 14-2 lead after a quarter and never let the Lady Knights reach double figures in a quarter of a nondistrict game in Albuquerque.
It helped that Pojoaque (3-0) had two weeks of practice to work on things.
“I didn’t know what to expect with no practice,” Martinez said of the start of the season. “You can’t rely on anything. You have to wait until the games started and mix and match from there.”
Ashten Martinez had a team-high 11 points, while Taylor Roybal added eight. Del Norte (0-4) had Beatrice Young and Haile Barton each score five points.
VAUGHN 55, DESERT ACADEMY/ SANTA FE WALDORF 38
The Eagles scored the first 10 points and the Wild Wolves never could climb out of that hole in a nondistrict game at Vaughn.
The margin was 14-6 after one quarter, and 26-19 at the half before the Eagles (6-0) outscored Desert Academy/Waldorf 29-19 the rest of the way.
Liam Otero had a team-high 27 points to lead the Wild Wolves (1-3), but no other player had more than five.
“The main problem was that they pulled out to a quick 10-0 lead in the first 2 minutes and we weren’t able to get into our groove,” head coach Enrique Otero said. “After that, we started to come back and started to find the touch on the basket.”
ST. MICHAEL’S 58, POJOAQUE VALLEY 48
The Horsemen improved to 4-1 with a strong defensive effort and a balance offensive attack that has been their staple so far this season.
St. Michael’s led by only 27-24 at the half, but outscored the Elks 20-12 in the third quarter to break the game open. Thomas Wood led the Horsemen with 13 points, while Hayden Lee and Dominic Morgan each had 11. Dante Ortiz paced Pojoaque (3-5) with 17 points.
The Dons built a 53-49 lead heading into the fourth quarter of a nondistrict game against the Rams in Portales, but went cold down the stretch. Portales outscored them 23-8 over the final 8 minutes to rally for the win.
“It was just a lot of mental breakdowns,” West Las Vegas head coach Clyde Sanchez said. “We’re very limited with varsity experience, and it came out [Tuesday], but that’s OK. Those games we played last weekend [in the Brian Gallegos Tournament] and this one will help us.”
Jaycob Medlin paced the Rams (2-1) with 17 points, Julian Urioste added 11 and Kellen Hightower 10. John Balizan had a game-high 21 points for the Dons (3-1), while D.J. Byron added 14.
West Las Vegas heads back to Eastern New Mexico to play Texico at 2 p.m. Saturday.