Portales stands in way of Hope’s fifth straight crown
Top seeds cruise to championship game
Today’s Class 4A boys championship basketball game will feature perennial champion Hope Christian against challenger Portales after the top two seeds won semifinal games Friday morning in the Pit.
The four-time defending state champion and top-seeded Huskies shook off a slow start — by their standards — to methodically pull away from No. 4 Robertson 66-42.
Portales rode the dominant performance of Jeremie Karngbaye to a 53-39 win over No. 3 Silver in Friday’s other semifinal.
The final tips off in the Pit at noon.
Hope ended the first quarter up by just four, but senior guard Marcus Medina hit a pair of 3s and rifled a pass to Nelson Longmire for a layup to spark a 10-2 run in the second period that put the Huskies up 27-12.
Robertson (18-9) cut it to 27-16 at the half, but the Huskies (25-5) opened the third quarter on a 9-3 run — including a pair of buckets from Medina — to extend the margin to 17. The Cardinals got no closer than 14 the rest of the way.
‘“I think both teams started out really slow,” Hope coach Jim Murphy said. “We missed free throws, layups. … I think Marcus started hitting some outside shots, and it kind of opened up our game. I thought we did a pretty good job defensively. We always want to show up on the defensive end.”
Medina had a game-high 19 points, while Longmire and Preston Ulibarri chipped in 13 points apiece for Hope.
“It’s a great feeling,” Medina said. “It’s exciting, knowing that we’ve got another shot at a state title.”
The Huskies held Robertson to 26 percent shooting from the floor and forced 17 turnovers. Hope also outscored the Cardinals 32-12 in the paint. Arjay Ortiz paced Robertson with 14 points and Kasean Pryor added 11, but they combined to shoot 9-for-27.
The Colts simply had no answer for Karngbaye.
The 6-foot-5 Ram senior dominated inside with 23 points — on an efficient 11-for-13 shooting — and nine rebounds, but perhaps more importantly, he anchored Portales’ vexing 1-3-1 zone as his team pulled away in the second half.
“I believe he is the best player in the state,” Silver coach Brandon Siqueiros said. “…We knew sooner or later that we were going to have to deal with that 1-3-1. The only thing that makes it really special is their guards can go out and do whatever they want on the peripheral because he’s inside.”
Portales led just 23-22 at halftime as Tristin Moore and Sal Cruz took turns scoring from the perimeter for Silver. However, once the Rams switched their defense in the second half, things went downhill for the Colts.
Portales (25-4) closed the third quarter on a 10-3 run to take a 40-31 lead and continued to assert its will from there. A 3-pointer from Junior Ramirez gave the Rams a 48-32 lead with 5:33 to play. Silver (24-5) never threatened after that.
Ramirez went 4-for-8 from 3-point range and finished with 15 points for Portales. Moore and Cruz accounted for all but two of Silver’s 39 points.