Healthier Horsemen best Blue Griffins

Gerard Garcia doesn’t need hands to count the number of days the St. Michael’s Horsemen have had their full complement of varsity players he selected for the 2023-24 season. That’s because it hasn’t happened yet. If it wasn’t the football season that prevented St. Michael’s from fielding its full squad, then it was the Red/ Green Football All-Star Game.

If it wasn’t football, then it was illness or injuries.

Defending a state title is never easy, but fate seems intent on throwing as many obstacles at the Horsemen as possible.

After a frustrating Tuesday loss to Raton on the road to open District 2-3A play, and faced with the prospect of going 0-2, the Horsemen played with energy — if not a sense of desperation — against Santa Fe Prep on Thursday night and rolled their way to a 63-47 win in Perez-Shelley Gymnasium.

It was a good rebound win for the Horsemen, especially as junior guard Sabi Rios-Guevara returned from a knee injury that prevented him from playing against Raton.

Garcia, the second-year St. Michael’s head coach, said the team is still missing two key rotational players in Jaden Perea and Jeremiah Lucero due to injuries.

“It’s just a matter of us getting everybody healthy, whether it’s next week or the following week,” Garcia said. “Whenever it happens, we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”

The Horsemen (9-9 overall, 1-1 in 2-3A) gave a glimpse of what that version might look like against the Blue Griffins. The defensive intensity was there from the start, even if the points were not. It was just a matter of time before that happened, and everything started to gel with a 20-point second quarter that gave St. Michael’s a 30-19 halftime lead. The crescendo came during a 16-6 scoring run that turned a 36-28 lead into a 52-34 margin, capped by Nick Angelley’s layup off a Lucas Gurule steal with 5:12 left in the game.

It was vintage Horsemen basketball, as the defense stifled Prep’s interior duo of Mitch Grover and Van Anderson, who combined for just 20 points on the night. The play of sophomore Donaven Ricker and freshman Ryan Hunt against the Prep bigs in the paint was vital toward pulling away in the second half.

“They couldn’t really get what they were accustomed to,” Ricker said. “Which was nice because Mitch and Van, they’ve been playing really nice. So, it was nice to throw them off their tracks.”

On the perimeter, the quartet of Gurule, Rios-Guevara, Angelley and sophomore Kamal Stith pressured

the Prep guards into a rash of mistakes. The group forced five turnovers during the run, which fed the Horsemen’s transition game. Rios-Guevara showed no ill effects of the knee injury he suffered in a 69-67 win over Grants on Jan. 19 and scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half.

It has been a tough season for the junior, who has missed six games for a variety of reasons. The knee, he said, felt good and he was confident in playing at a high level.

“It’s hard to get back on right away,” Rios-Guevara said. “I know injuries suck and that has been a big part of the season so far, but once we get everyone healthy, we’ll be all right.”

Meanwhile, Prep (9-7, 0-1) was a step slow for much of the night, and head coach Joe Vigil said the team has struggled with consistency, whether it’s playing at a high level or playing smart basketball. Against the Horsemen, it was both.

“Our offense, we got a little selfish and we didn’t run what we wanted to run,” Vigil said. “That was the difference in the game. That, and rebounding. For being a taller team, we need to do a better job of boxing out and cleaning up the boards.”

As great as it was to rebound with a win over Prep, Garcia said the Horsemen have to get themselves ready for Friday’s battle against Santa Fe Indian School, which is coming off a 62-51 loss to Las Vegas Robertson on Wednesday. He said motivation won’t be an issue, as St. Michael’s still remembers the harsh 72-39 loss to the Braves in the fifth-place game of the Bobby Rodriguez Capital City Tournament in December. The Horsemen were missing four players that day, and he expects a much better performance in the rematch.

“That wasn’t a ball game, but we still shouldn’t have lost like that,” Garcia said. “I think it’s on these guys’ minds.”

Revenge might be nice, but Garcia and the Horsemen would love something even better — a fully healthy team.