ATC hangs on against Jal, heads to semifinals
RIO RANCHO — The stage is as big it’s ever been for the Academy for Technology and the Classics boys basketball team.
It’s about to get a whole lot bigger.
The Phoenix punched its ticket to the Class 2A State Tournament semifinals by surviving a late-game rally from Jal on Wednesday morning at the Rio Rancho Events Center. ATC’s Jordan Apodaca partially blocked a potential game-tying 3-point attempt by Jal’s Jacob Lujan with five seconds left, preserving a 39-38 win that sends the Phoenix (25-6) into Friday’s final four in The Pit.
Like Wednesday’s game, the semifinal appearance comes with an 8 a.m. tipoff.
“That’s OK, as long as we’re still playing,” coach Bobby Romero said. “We’ll get back home, have the boys in the gym practicing at 6:30 [Thursday morning] and getting ready.”
That comment brought a smile to the face of ATC players Rocky Miller and Juju Bernardino. Sitting next to Romero after Wednesday’s game, they both admitted the remarkable run the Phoenix are on makes the next two days of school, well, a little distracting.
“We’re not really a basketball school, so it’s been pretty interesting to see how it’s all, you know, changing,” Miller said.
“Yeah, it’s going to be hard doing any homework the next couple days,” Bernardino laughed. “A lot going on.”
The Phoenix nearly bowed out earlier than they wanted. Leading by as many as 12 in the first half and up 30-18 as late as the waning moments of the third quarter, they withstood a furious Panthers rally that saw Jal use a 16-4 run to tie it at 34 with 3:20 left in the game.
A bigger, much more physical team whose roster is filled with players who helped the school’s football team win a state title in the fall, Jal had three straight possessions after its equalizing bucket to take its first lead of the game. The Panthers turned it over each time, allowing ATC to slowly pull back in front.
Apodaca hit five of six free throw attempts in the final 1:48 to put the Phoenix up 39-34. The lead appeared safe when Jal missed a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left, but Panthers big man Gabriel Juarez collected the rebound and put it back in to make it a one-possession game with 11 ticks remaining.
ATC’s attempt to ice the game away dissolved when the Phoenix turned it over on the inbounds pass, giving Jal one last shot.
That’s when Apodaca rose to the occasion again — literally. He didn’t bite on a pump-fake from Lujan outside the arc but elevated with him on the actual shot attempt to tip the ball with his middle two fingers. The ball floated forward and landed in the hands of a teammate, who scored with three seconds left.
Bernardino patiently stood with the ball out of bounds as the clock expired.
Not the prettiest win, Romero said. Not that it made any difference. “Don’t matter if we win by one or 30, we’re still playing and we’re still winning,” Romero said. “People forget that we’re doing this with a young team who’s never done anything like this. The lesson for them is winning, not by how many points we win by.”
NOTES
Apodaca had a team-high 12 points and for ATC, getting seven of those at the free throw line. Bernardino had 11 points and eight rebounds on 5-of-12 shooting while Miller had six boards and six points. … Jal’s Alexavier Carreon had 11 rebounds and teammate Gabriel Juarez, who scored the team’s final basket on that tipped 3-pointer, had 12 boards and 10 points. Lujan had a team-high 11 for the Panthers, who shot just 31.5% for the game after going 5-for-25 from the field in the first half.