Braves hold off Cardinals

Aguino was solid the entire second half. With Bridges spending time on the bench, he made a handful of big plays with the game on the line. He said he never really considered letting his injury get the best of him.

“I’m a senior and this team needed me to be out there,” he said. “Games like this, you have to play.”

The Braves got all their scoring from just five players. Bridges and Abeyta added nine points, as did Ethan Roanhorse. Roanhorse was 5-for-6 from the free-throw line in the second half. As a team, the Braves were 14-for-17 from the stripe.

It offset the outstanding play in the paint by Robertson big man Julius Vaughn. He scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, doing much of his damage in the low post either in transition or in the half-court set.

“That’s where I thank [Santa Fe High] coach Zack Cole for letting us into the Capital City [Tournament],” said SFIS head coach Jason Abeyta. “We saw a lot of great competition in there and those games, all the games like that, helped us get ready for a player like [Vaughn]. That’s where I give credit to coach Cole for giving us those games. They made us better.”

Robertson’s loss leaves the Cardinals (12-10, 4-3) three games behind St. Michael’s and two full games — not including the tiebreaker — against SFIS. With just three games left in the regular season, the Braves know it’s a sprint to the finish line with the Horsemen, the top team for much of the season in Class 3A.

“This team has a lot of seniors on it and we know what we have to do,” Pecos said. “There’s some things we need to improve, but we know what it is and that all we have to do is keep on winning.”

NOTES

Close, but not quite: The Braves’ senior point guard, Jason Abeyta has been dealing with a bad ankle basically the entire district season. He is only about 80 percent, said his father, the SFIS head coach.

Looking ahead: SFIS is on the road for two of its final three regular-season games. After hosting Raton on Saturday, they stay in town to face Santa Fe Prep and St. Michael’s.

The Braves are ranked fourth in the latest MaxPreps tabulation and No. 5 in the NMOTSC coaches’ poll. Barring a major collapse down the stretch, they appear to be a lock for a topeight seed at the state tournament with an outside chance at moving into the top four.