Rivals Española Valley, Capital set for showdown
STATE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
Familiar opponents Capital and Española Valley will play for the 5A boys basketball championship on Saturday afternoon in the Pit.
The teams have met four times this season, with Capital winning three of the meetings.
“When you play Española, you better be ready to play,” Capital coach Ben Gomez said of his District 2-5A rival. “They’re physical, they’re smart, they’re strong and they’re not going to give up.”
No. 5 ESPAÑOLA VALLEY 44, No. 8 CENTENNIAL 39:
Despite a scoreless third quarter, the Sundevils (23-9) went on a 12-2 run in the final minutes and ousted the defending state champion Hawks (23-9).
A year ago, Española Valley was coming off a one-point win in the quarterfinals and took on Centennial in the semifinals of Class 5A state tournament in the Pit.
On Thursday, the Sundevils were again coming off a thrilling one-point victory in the quarterfinals — having beaten Bernalillo 50-49 on Wednesday — and again faced Centennial in the semifinals.
A year ago, the Hawks demolished the Sundevils 80-53 in the semifinals.
“I’m not going to lie, that one really hurt. That left an itch that I really needed to scratch,” said Española Valley coach Richard Martinez. “That was a long walk going up that ramp after the game.”
On Thursday, that walk up the ramp was a flat-out sprint for Martinez and his Sundevils — but not before they were simply flat most of the game.
EV led 8-5 after one quarter and 22-20 at the half, but was just 5 of 15 from the floor and 2 of 8 from 3-point range. And then it got really ugly. The Hawks went into a fullcourt press to open the third quarter, and the Sundevils were helpless. They finished the period 0-for-7 from the floor, with six turnovers, and never got to the foul line.
Meanwhile, Centennial’s Alex Baez had six of his teamhigh 11 points in the period — which ended with the Hawks in front 28-22.
Down 30-22, the Sundevils made a move. A Marcos Flores bucket with 6:30 left preceded a quick Centennial turnover. Then Elias Archuleta ripped a 3-pointer to ignite the estimated crowd of 7,000, nearly all Española Valley fans, and make it 30-28 with just more than five minutes left.
The Sundevils got back in front when James Archuleta hit a bank shot with 2:11 left to make it 36-35 before the Hawks hit a pair of free throws.
Marcos Flores scored on a drive with 1:24 remaining, then made one of two free throws with 28 seconds left to give Española a 39-37 advantage. He then forced a Hawks turnover, which led to a decisive score.
No. 3 CAPITAL 52, No. 2 GRANTS 46: Eric Coca scored 21 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, leading the Jaguars (27-4).
“I give credit to the coaching staff, they give me tips like the three C’s: cool, calm and collective,” Coca said. “They give me motivation to believe in myself.”
Coca set the tone for Capital with his team’s first two buckets and paced the Jaguars to a 22-21 lead at the break.
In a back-and-forth first half, the two teams each shot 32 percent from the field, but the Jaguars converted on 7 of 10 free throws, while Grants attempted zero.
The ability to get to the rim was certainly in Gomez’s game-plan: “We wanted to attack the rim because we knew if we just settled for the shot, it was going to play into their hands,” he said.
Capital had its biggest run of the game, a 7-0-spurt midway through the third quarter, giving the Jaguars a 32-27 advantage.
They then stretched that lead to 48-37 with 2:55 remaining in the game, its largest lead, proved to be too much for Grants (25-4) to claw back from.
“We just got caught in the moment, we are used to being ahead going into the fourth quarter, said Pirates senior Bradley Hatten. “I think it got to us and took our pride away.”