Quick-starting Rams, Sandia advance to Metro final
There wasn’t a whole lot of give and take in Saturday’s semifinals of the Albuquerque Metro Championships, but the boys from Rio Rancho and Sandia still had to sweat it out as they punched their tickets to the final.
The Matadors led their semi from start to finish, and the Rams led for almost the entire way as a pair of lower seeds won at Del Norte High School — both of them needing to hang on at the end.
Rio Rancho (10-5) and Sandia (7-4) play at 7 p.m. Monday at Cibola in the title game. (5) RIO RANCHO 83, (1) ALBUQUERQUE HIGH 79: The Rams buried six 3-pointers during a spectacular 31-point first quarter and led by as many as 17 in the second quarter. Eventually, Rio Rancho had to withstand a fierce run by the Bulldogs (9-2) in the second half.
The Rams will be appearing in their first metro championship game.
“I didn’t know how the team would react to not playing (Friday, when the game was originally scheduled),” said Rio Rancho coach Wally Salata. “I told the guys that we had to have a good start. Albuquerque High is a good team, and we can’t give them the lead.”
Rio Rancho had runs of 9-0 and 7-0 early. The first pushed the lead to 20-9, the second ended the quarter with a 31-18 advantage.
Senior guard Juan Hurt scored 13 points in that first quarter, including three 3s. Sophomore David Patterson, gaining big minutes in recent weeks as his older brother Clay nurses a kneecap injury, added a pair of 3s during the first eight minutes.
The Rams led for the final 28:46 of game clock. Hurt finished with 28 points, Patterson a career-best 21, including five 3s.
“What we tell him is not to be afraid to shoot the ball,” said Hurt, “because he is a stellar 3-point shooter.”
The Bulldogs, who beat Rio Rancho 73-57 in late November, trailed 44-32 at halftime, but, sparked by the 3-point shooting of Jai Douglas and Lorenzo Cantoja and the excellent overall play of guard Randy Castillo, AHS sliced the deficit to 63-59 with six minutes left in the game. But that was as close as the Bulldogs got.
Hurt made all 10 of his freethrow attempts in the fourth quarter for the Rams.
AHS coach Ron Garcia was quick to credit Rio Rancho’s perimeter expertise, but said that was secondary in the big picture.
“They shot the ball extremely well from the 3, but I thought what hurt us most tonight is that we didn’t defend the basket very well at all tonight,” Garcia said.
Castillo led the Bulldogs with 23 points. (11) SANDIA 70, (10) VOLCANO VISTA 63: The Matadors scored the game’s first nine points and led comfortably throughout the first half — and actually for the first 3½ quarters — as the Hawks labored offensively.
After that opening 9-0 run, Sandia led by at least five points the entire game. The Matadors, in fact, were still up 53-39 with 4:11 to go.
But Volcano Vista (7-6) finally found a spark and hit a barrage of 3-pointers — albeit too late to catch Sandia, a team the Hawks had whipped 70-48 just four weeks ago.
Volcano Vista cut the deficit to 53-47 with 2:56 to go after a 3 by Andres Vigil, and carved into that Sandia lead a bit further, shaving it to 61-56, with 76 seconds remaining after Kyle Vargas drained a 3.
But the Hawks ran out of steam there.
“I didn’t see us coming together to make this type of run,” Sandia coach Alvin Broussard said. “But the boys saw it.”
Jhonah Callahan led a balanced Matadors offense with 15 points, all on 3s.
“We’re young, and we made some young (mistakes), but our boys continue to battle,” said Broussard, whose team began 1-3 but has won six of its last seven games. That includes wins earlier this week over No. 6 Cibola and No. 3 Hope Christian.
Senior forward David Cormier had 19 points to pace Volcano Vista, which meets AHS meet for third place at 5 p.m. Monday at Cibola. Dion Battle added 18 points on six 3-pointers.