Melrose, Tatum to play for title

Top two seeds have been impressive in effort to succeed Elida on throne

RIO RANCHO — With Elida having vacated its throne in state small-school girls basketball, Melrose and Tatum are hoping to be next in line.

In particular, top-seeded Melrose has made a statement to that effect. Its 32-point win in Thursday’s Class 1A semifinals over Cliff at the Santa Ana Star Center was its closest game yet in this year’s state tournament.

Second-seeded Tatum also advanced with an easy win over Logan. Saturday’s final is 10 a.m. at Dreamstyle Arena -- the Pit. No. 1 MELROSE 65, No. 5 CLIFF

33: Nataley Mondragon had 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Buffaloes (24-6), who spurted out to a 20-4 first-quarter lead and coasted. Melrose hit eight 3-pointers and built a 36-point lead late in the third quarter of a game that lots of players on both teams saw action.

Kimberly Gutierrez scored 12 points to lead Cliff (22-8), but the Cowgirls were just 13-of-55 (23.6 percent) from the field.

Elida has won every small school title from 2011-18 but didn’t make the field this year.

Meanwhile, Melrose gets frequent finals mileage. Melrose lost the last two 1A finals to Elida, but won 2A championships in 2015 and 2016. No. 2 TATUM 60, No. 3 LOGAN 42: Celeste Jimenez had 20 points for the Coyotes (27-4), who benefited from 29 Longhorn turnovers. Tatum led for nearly 30 minutes of the 32-minute game.

Harlie Roach was perfect shooting and had a team-high 12 points for Logan (24-7).

Maddy Rice added nine points and Abigail Duran and Kheyenne Huysman eight each for Tatum.

Logan handed Tatum its last loss, 65-47 at the EPAC Tournament on Jan. 12.