Hawks for the defense
Volcano Vista repeats in 5A, beats cold-shooting Matadors
Even one of the strangest-looking state championship games on record couldn’t interrupt Volcano Vista’s coronation as the Class 5A boys basketball state champion.
The top-seeded Hawks and No. 2 Sandia combined for the lowestscoring big-school state final in the modern era, and the lowestscoring game in 71 years, but at the end, Volcano Vista found enough spark to beat the Matadors 43-31 before a large crowd Saturday night at the Pit.
Volcano Vista won state for the second straight season.
“Beyond words,” Hawks coach Greg Brown said. “We’ll find words, but a special night for our guys.”
The final pitted Brown against his brother Danny, the head coach at Sandia. There was much fanfare surrounding this meeting, the first for the brothers in a postseason environment.
After a lengthy handshake line when the game was over, the Browns hugged and shared a few words.
“He was just making sure I was OK,” Danny Brown said.
Sandia (26-6) led this game for the first 3½ quarters before finally being overtaken by the Hawks — and also being undone by awful shooting in the second half.
The Matadors, who led 21-15 at halftime, were 1 of 10 from the floor in the third quarter, 1 of 11 in the fourth quarter and shot under 30% for the game. Sandia made six field goals in the first quarter, but only five the rest of the game.
“I let them down,” Brown said. “I got my butt outcoached.”
Anthony Gonzales of Volcano Vista gave his team its first lead of the night, dropping in a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 4:35 remaining for a 28-25 lead.
“Just gave us a little momentum (and) and from then we just wanted to hold (the lead),” said Gonzales, who scored six points.
The Hawks’ gifted 6-foot-7 sophomore forward, Kenyon Aguino, added a short jumper moments later, then Aguino added two free throws for a 32-25 edge with 3:10 to go.
And in a game which was a slog like this one, a seven-point lead felt more like 20.
“We weren’t frustrated,” said Aguino, who led Volcano Vista (29-1) with 17 points and 11
rebounds. “We knew what we could do, and we weren’t doing it.”
Volcano Vista outscored Sandia 21-6 in the decisive fourth quarter as the Hawks beat the Matadors for the fourth time this season. This was the largest margin of the four.
Historically, no two teams had combined for fewer points (74) in the big-school boys final, not since the state went to three classes in 1969, The 1991 final between Alamogordo and Sandia had 75 points.
You had to go back to 1952, when there weren’t even classifications yet, to find a lower-scoring boys final than this one. That was Roswell 36, Alamogordo 33.
Danny Brown was of mixed emotions afterward.
“It was an awesome day, I ain’t gonna lie,” he said. “I’m happy for my brother, and I’m happy we got to play them. … I got to spend the whole day with my guys, that was what was important. I hurt for them.”