St. Pius grinds out tough win; Gallup is next
Freshmen give Hope big lift
It was rarely pretty, but the St. Pius Sartans will take an ugly victory over the alternative.
Catalina Anaya had a steal and two game-clinching free throws in the final 10 seconds to propel thirdseeded St. Pius (22-5) past No. 6 seed Los Alamos (20-8) 40-36 in one of the Class 4A girls basketball quarterfinals at the Pit on Tuesday. The Sartans advance to play Gallup, which easily defeated Valencia, on Thursday at the Pit at 11:30 a.m.
“Sometimes they’re not pretty, and it just comes down to one or two plays,” said St. Pius coach Brio Rode. “Our kids have never not played really hard. The Pit, it’s an amazing place and scary place if you’ve never been here. I’m just glad we came on this side of it. …”
The Sartans had reason to be frustrated following a first half during which they scored 13 points and shot 25 percent from the floor. St. Pius star Alyssa Maes battled early foul trouble and was held scoreless, but she helped jump-start the Sartans by scoring all of her seven points in the third period.
St. Pius led by eight in the third period, but Los Alamos rallied to tie it by the end of the quarter.
Down 38-36 in the last minute, the Hilltoppers had two chances to tie or take the lead. The first occurred when Abigail Martinez missed a wide open 3 after a Los Alamos steal. Shortly thereafter, GG Romero received an inbound pass on the St. Pius side of the court with 10 seconds to play, where she was swarmed on the baseline and had a pass intercepted by Anaya, who then converted both foul shots to seal the victory
No. 2 GALLUP 60, No. 10 VALENCIA 37:
At the Pit, Bengals post Rylie Whitehair had a doubledouble with 13 points and 11 rebounds and Daliyah Morris added 13 points and five steals among the 23 thefts Gallup (26-5) made in beating the Jaguars (19-11).
Valencia was aware of the havoc the Bengals could wreak and tried to prepare for it, coach Micaela Medina said.
“We worked on our press offense a lot,” Medina said. “We even had some boy players come in to kind of match the speed that were going to face. There is nothing I can do to truly simulate what it’s going to be like on the court with their crowd and the intensity and it just being natural for Gallup playing in the Pit, and this is the first time we have ever experienced it.” — Glen Rosales
No. 4 HOPE CHRISTIAN 62, No. 5 ARTESIA 48:
The Huskies closed the game on a 15-5 run to pull away from the Bulldogs.
Hope advances to the semifinals, where it will play No. 1 seed Kirtland Central on Thursday.
Artesia (19-9) closed to within 47-43 on a deep 3 by Koda Beltran with 5:30 to play. However, Hope (22-7) held the Bulldogs to just one field goal the rest of the way while converting 11 of 14 foul shots down the stretch. Four different Huskies converted at the stripe during the game-clinching run, and a 3-point play by Alyssa Vigil with 1:23 to play gave Hope a 58-47 advantage.
“Turnovers have hurt us in the past, but today our seniors really stepped up,” Hope coach Michael Cole said. “The next part to that is our two freshmen (Zoe Mangrum and Mia Bishop) had big games. They really, really contributed.”
Mangrum and Bishop combined for 14 points while shooting 6-for-10 from the field. However, no Husky had a bigger game than senior post Kathleen Obisike, who narrowly missed an unconventional triple-double with 17 points, 14 rebounds and a careerhigh nine blocked shots.
“I really just try my best to not let anyone score in the paint. That’s my goal, usually,” she said.
Vigil tied Obisike with a game-high 17 points. Beltran was the only Bulldog in double figures with 16.
— Tristen Critchfield
No. 1 KIRTLAND CENTRAL 73, No. 8 BLOOMFIELD 31:
At the Pit, Aaryanna Lansing scored 15 points and Jaylene HarrisRhea added14 as Kirtland Central (28-3) forced 35 turnovers and won for the third time over Bloomfield. Aliya Quintana’s 10 points and 14 rebounds led Bloomfield (18-11).
Class 3A girls
No. 3 SANTA FE INDIAN SCHOOL 40, No. 6 SANDIA PREP 32 :
At the Rio Rancho Event Center, third-seeded Santa Fe Indian advanced to its second straight 3A girls’ basketball final four. The Braves face secondseeded Navajo Prep Thursday at 8:15 p.m. at the Rio Rancho Event Center.
“We have to figure out a way to stop the machine that is Navajo Prep,” said Santa Fe Indian coach Teri Morrison. “It’s one game at a time, and the journey (this year) has been fantastic.”
Emma Lewis, who sat much of the first half with foul trouble, had 11 points, six rebounds, and four assists for the Braves (22-7).
Sandia Prep (19-10) finished the first half on a 6-0 run to take a 21-17 lead, but failed to score the first six minutes of the third quarter as the Braves rattled off the first 10 points. Mika Juan’s 18 points and 10 rebounds paced the Sundevils.
— Patrick Newell
No. 4 TOHATCHI 48, No. 5 TUCUMCARI 23:
At the Rio Rancho Events Center, Brooke Badonie led a balanced Tohatchi (22-9) attack with 10 points, and Tucumcari (20-7) was a woeful 5-of-46 from the field. July Lafferty had a game-high 13 rebounds for Tucumcari.
No. 1 ROBERTSON 56, No. 8 THOREAU 38:
In Rio Rancho, Mistidawn Roybal scored 14 points as Robertson (28-1) won a contest that featured 55 turnovers, 32 by Thoreau. Colleen MosesPerry’s 13 points led Thoreau (19-11),.
No. 2 NAVAJO PREP 49, No. 7 ST. MICHAEL’S 42: In Rio Rancho, Aniya Johnson scored a game-high 16 points, and her 16 rebounds keyed 26-3 Navajo Prep’s domination on the glass in defeating St. Michael’s (1812). Madelyn Mossman’s 11 points led St. Mike’s, which was outrebounded 43-29.
Class 2A girls
No. 4 CAPITAN 41, No. 12 PECOS 40:
In Rio Rancho, Haileigh Brown had 19 points and 15 rebounds for Capitan (23-6), which rallied from 14 down in the first half to win. Kristina Ragland’s 17 points and nine rebounds led Pecos (15-14).
No. 7 TEXICO 48, No. 2 MESA VISTA 38: In Rio Rancho, Catelyn Breshears had 21 points and 10 rebounds for Texico (15-13), which trailed 17-16 at the half but dominated the rest of the game by shooting 67 percent (10-of-15) from the field. Tan Lopez’s 15 points led Mesa Vista (23-6), which shot 22 percent (12-of-54) from the field.
No. 1 ESCALANTE 53, No. 9 CLAYTON 42: In Rio Rancho, Brycelyn Martinez scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds for Escalante (217), which dominated after going into the fourth quarter down 36-35. Morgan Crisp led Clayton (21-9) with 11 points and 14 rebounds.
No. 3 LAGUNA ACOMA 55, No. 6 DULCE 33: In Rio Rancho, Gianna Carrillo had a game-high 17 points and Sylvia Gedman a game-high 17 rebounds for Laguna Acoma (20-9). Sidneyanne Becenti’s nine points led Dulce (21-9).