Santa Fe-area girls teams fill up lower-level brackets
Four from District 2-3A make state tourney, with Mesa Vista top seed in Class 2A field
No Santa Fe-area teams from Class 5A made the Girls Basketball State Tournament. Same, too, for Class 1A. All three area teams in 4A are lower seeds and have been dispatched to road games at higher seeds.
But it’s a different story in 3A and 2A, where four teams from District 2-3A have been given home games in the first round, while 2A’s top overall seed is Mesa Vista.
Let the games begin. The first round for the girls’ tournament is Friday night with 40 games in five classifications around the state. Among them
are home dates for St. Michael’s, Santa Fe Indian School, Mesa Vista and Pecos, as well as Robertson and West Las Vegas.
The Lady Horsemen (13-11) were handed the No. 7 seed in 3A despite not winning a single game against a 2-3A rival. They stumble into the tournament on a seven-game losing streak, having dropped eight of their last nine after starting the season 12-3.
Their body of work was still good enough to get a home game against No. 10 Cuba (15-13), the regular season co-champs of District 5-3A. St. Mike’s faced the fourth-toughest schedule of anyone in 3A, a fact that went a long way in landing the Lady Horsemen a spot in their own gym to start the tournament.
District 2-3A champ Robertson (19-7) got the No. 2 seed and will host No. 15 Wingate (7-20) in Michael Marr Gymnasium later this week. The Cardinals had their 13-game winning streak snapped over the weekend in the 2-3A finals against Santa Fe Indian.
The Lady Braves (17-9) landed the No. 4 seed and will face No. 14 Socorro (12-16) in the Pueblo Pavilion on Friday night. SFIS features one of the stingiest defenses in the state with opponents averaging just 36.9 points per game.
West Las Vegas also earned a home game as the No. 6 seed. The Lady Dons (13-12) meet No. 11 Thoreau (13-15) in the opening round. A win likely sets up a showdown with perennial power Navajo Prep in the quarterfinals in Rio Rancho on March 12, the same day a potential St. Michael’s-Robertson rematch would take place.
The 4A bracket has Los Alamos at No. 10, Pojoaque Valley at 13 and Española Valley at 15. Los Alamos (17-12) got the edge over Pojoaque Valley (15-13) based on criteria points used by the New Mexico Activities Association. The Hilltoppers won three of their four meetings, including the last three that all took place within a six-day span between the end of the regular season and the finals or the 2-4A tournament.
Pojoaque heads to No. 4 Gallup in the return of hall of fame coach Cindy Roybal to the postseason. The firstyear Elkettes coach led the program to its most wins in four years.
Los Alamos travels to No. 7 Bloomfield, which finished tied for third in the rugged 1-4A standings behind top overall seed Kirtland Central and Gallup.
Española Valley (15-13) has lost three of its last four and will head to Albuquerque to take on No. 2 St. Pius (23-3).
In 2A, Mesa Vista (24-3) has been anointed the tournament favorite by virtue of its No. 1 seed. The Trojans have won 11 straight, their only loss since early December coming to Pecos (21-6), the No. 3 seed.
Mesa Vista opens at home against Capitan (10-17) while Pecos hosts 14-seed Lordsburg (14-13).
Peñasco and Questa are also in the tournament. Peñasco (17-11) earned home game as the No. 6 seed and will face No. 11 Clayton (16-11) while Questa (19-10) is seeded No. 9 and will visit No. 8 Laguna-Acoma (17-9).
The 5A bracket is devoid of Santa Fe High and Capital. The Demons finished 9-19 while Capital was 6-21. Both would have had to win their district tournament to get an automatic bid. As it is, District 5-5A only had two of its six teams make the postseason with Albuquerque High (24-5) getting the 10 seed and Los Lunas (19-10) landing at No. 14.