Trojans turn back Blue Griffins
Mesa Vista withstands Santa Fe Prep’s rally to advance to tournament championship
Thomas Vigil doesn’t see problems — only the potential for solutions. So, with just 5 minutes left in Friday’s semifinal of Santa Fe Indian School’s Braves Invite, Vigil brought his Mesa Vista Trojans into the huddle and pointed out what might not have been so obvious at the moment.
The Trojans led Santa Fe Prep, a team they had beaten by a scant 61-60 score just three days before, by an almost equally slim margin —55-52. It was 55-36 late in the third quarter, but the Blue Griffins used a furious 16-0 rally to get back into the game.
Vigil, though, didn’t focus on the 16-point run.
“I said, ‘Look around and see what’s the score,’ ” Vigil said. “‘We’re still up three. We can’t hang our heads.’ ”
That simple reminder was enough to restore order for Mesa Vista, which used a subsequent 6-2 mini-spurt to hold off Santa Fe Prep again, winning 63-59.
The Trojans, winners of five straight games, will face the host Braves for the tournament title at 8:15 p.m. Saturday. SFIS defeated Moriarty 55-39 to advance to the championship game.
It will be an SFIS-Mesa Vista lovefest in the boys and girls championship games, as the Lady Braves (10-4) rolled past Newcomb 63-29 while Mesa Vista hammered Cuba 75-49. The Lady Trojans (12-2) are going for their third tournament title in as many weeks.
The win marked the third straight time Mesa Vista (7-4) built a double-digit lead only to see its opponent rally to put a scare in it. But for the third time this week, the Trojans showed composure and calm in the face of growing chaos.
They ran their offense to near perfection and produced a reverse layup by Marcos Martinez just 18 seconds after the timeout to break Prep’s run. Even when the Blue Griffins cut the lead to 57-54 on Kiran Belyeu’s steal and layup with 1:51 to go, the Trojans didn’t let the moment get too big. Jordan Gallegos scored a bucket off the glass at 1:34, and Martinez had a steal-andlayup to up the margin to 61-54 and avert any potential crisis.
“We know how to handle the situations like that,” Mesa Vista freshman guard Andres Valdez said. “So, sometimes we do get too comfortable and that’s why they get to come back. But I think once we see we’re getting too comfortable, we bite back. We get out of our comfort zone and then we fight like dogs.”
There was plenty of fight in the
Trojans for much of the game, as they often showed they were the more physical team in battling a Blue Griffins squad that featured three players 6-foot-2 and taller. Mesa Vista has just one such player in Gallegos. Still, they matched Prep in the rebounding category (22 for each team) and had six offensive boards to the Blue Griffins’ three.
Prep twice had to overcome double-digit deficits — 17-6 in the opening quarter as Mesa Vista hit seven of its first 11 shots and 55-36 in the third when the Trojans connected on nine of their first 11 shots of the second half.
Valdez was crucial to that, as he scored eight points in the quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers as Mesa Vista scored the first 11 points after the break to build a 42-27 lead.
“We can’t come out flat like that,” Prep head coach Joe Vigil said. “We’re trying to get them to play 32 minutes of basketball with the same fire and intensity.”
When the Blue Griffins did play with that kind of intensity, they used their size and length to bother Mesa Vista. They hit four of five shots late in the first quarter and forced a pair of Trojans turnovers to pull within 17-14 on Mitchell Grover’s transition layup with 42 seconds left.
When Prep (6-6) extended its halfcourt trap late in the third quarter, it forced the Trojans into an oh-for-6 shooting slump and four turnovers to feed the
16-0 spurt. Yet, the Trojans persevered when the stakes were at their highest, which Vigil was especially happy to see as a coach and an educator.
“One of the biggest things that they can take away from our program is that you’re going to run into some hard times,” Vigil said. “You’re gonna fail classes and get speeding tickets. They’re gonna crash a car. But the resiliency is what keeps you coming back and looking to get better.”
BOYS
SEMIFINALS SFIS 55, MORIARTY 39
The Pintos dictated the pace and style, but the Braves were simply better at it. SFIS (11-2) used a closing 9-2 run to end the
third quarter and produce a 36-29 lead, then relied on eighth-grader Taivian Callado in the fourth. He rocked Moriarty (4-7) with 11 of his 13 points, including a trip of 3-pointers to help push the lead to its final mark.
Braves head coach Jason Abeyta said Callado, the youngest of three brothers on the team, is figuring out his role as well as learning how to play at the varsity level.
“He is one kid that I know is not afraid to shoot the rock,” Abeyta said. “And that’s what we needed in that moment.”
CONSOLATION
McCurdy reached the fifth-place game with a 63-45 win over Laguna-Acoma, building a 37-21 halftime in the process. Judah Duran had 15 points to lead the Bobcats (7-6), while Ryan Montoya added 13 and Lucas Medina scored 12.
McCurdy will take on Albuquerque Sandia Prep, as it beat Albuquerque Menaul, 63-42, in the morning game. The Sundevils (2-10) were led by freshman Chase Kendall and senior Jacob Schierloh, who both had 15 points.
GIRLS
SEMIFINALS SFIS 63, CUBA 29
It took a Lady Braves opponent 23 minutes, 20 seconds to score a point in the first half against the host team in the tournament. The Skyhawks’ Lehtia Yazzie scored a layup with 40 seconds left in the first quarter to stop a 26-0 start by SFIS (9-4), which then built a 37-6 halftime. In Thursday’s opening-round game, Raton did not score in the first half against the Lady Braves, who led 48-0 at the break.
Emma Lewis led the Lady Braves with 15 points, and Aaliyah Valencia added 11.
MESA VISTA 75, CUBA 49
The Lady Trojans held the Rams (4-10)to just one point in the opening quarter to take a 20-1 lead, and the lead grew to 43-16 at the half. Tana Lopez had 25 points to lead Mesa Vista, while Shanae Silva and Brittni Suazo each added 13.
CONSOLATION
McCurdy broke a 14-all halftime tie by outscoring Raton 17-2 in the third quarter and went on to a 38-19 win. The Bobcats (4-5) were paced by Kaylee Martinez’s 14 points. They will play Bernalillo for fifth place after the Spartans downed Laguna-Acoma, 72-56 in the other consolation semifinal.
Raton (0-13) and the Hawks (5-4) will play at 9 a.m. in Francis L. Abeyta Memorial Gymnasium, while the fifth-place game will take place in the Pueblo Pavilion at the same time.