Weather affects tourney schedules
Highland to lose 6 games in Clovis
It doesn’t happen often, but it has this year — snow has wreaked some serious havoc with some holiday prep basketball tournaments.
A handful of events featuring metro-area schools are scheduled around the state starting today. At least, that was the original plan before a monster snowstorm socked in southeastern New Mexico.
The Hobbs Holiday Classic, which features Sandia’s boys, was postponed by one day. It will now run Tuesday through Thursday.
Remarkably, another event in Clovis was cancelled entirely, impacting a number of boys and girls programs from New Mexico.
RIO RANCHO: The Jalene Berger Allstate Holiday Hoops Classic is one of three, all-boys tournaments that has a little bit of a metro flavor, along with Hobbs and the Stu Clark Invitational in Las Vegas.
It’s an interesting group of eight teams converging today
at Rio Rancho High School.
The opener features Aztec and Albuquerque High at 1 this afternoon. Following are Mayfield-Hope Christian at 3, Española Valley-Las Cruces at 5 and the host Rams at 7 p.m. against El Paso Socorro.
Semifinals are 5 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, the final at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
LOS LUNAS: The third annual Village of Los Lunas tournaments are going on as planned, with one minor alteration: all first-round games today, and there are eight of them, have been pushed back one hour.
Manzano and Atrisco Heritage’s boys are entered. The Monarchs meet Alamogordo at 1 this afternoon, with the Jaguars facing El Paso Montwood at 4 p.m. Los LunasPojoaque and Valencia-El Paso Hanks are the other first-round games.
Among the first-round girls matchups are Sandia Prep-Los Lunas and Manzano-Valencia.
HOBBS: Sandia faces Hershey, Texas, on Tuesday night in the first round, with Hobbs and St. Michael’s also in that half of the bracket.
The championship game is now Thursday night.
CLOVIS: Both tournaments were cancelled late Sunday afternoon, according to Highland boys coach Danny Brown.
“It’s not a good deal,” Brown said. “I don’t know how APS is gonna handle this.”
The Hornets will lose three games for both genders, leaving them with a 21-game slate unless APS can arrange for Highland to pick up a couple of games later in the season against other programs that also don’t have a full schedule.
LAS VEGAS: Bernalillo and West Mesa open the venerable Stu Clark tournament at 1 p.m. today, with the winner meeting Robertson or Miyamura on Tuesday in the semifinals.
Silver meets St. Pius at 2:30 this afternoon, with Kirtland Central or West Las Vegas awaiting on Tuesday. The final is Wednesday night.
LAS CRUCES: Rio Rancho and Sandia’s girls will play in the Las Cruces Holiday Hoopla event at Oñate, which also has been delayed a day. The Matadors face the Knights and Rio Rancho takes on El Paso Americas in first-round games Tuesday.