Playing with plenty of NRG
Half of Northern Rio Grande Tournament roster competing at state highlights growing strength of member schools
The strength of the Northern Rio Grande Tournament has always been its tradition and community support of its eight member schools.
It might want to add quality teams to that list, especially over the past six years.
For the first time in its storied history, the NRG can boast four of its members representing half of the eight remaining teams in the Class 2A State Girls Basketball Tournament. Even better, there is a chance its teams could occupy three of the four semifinal spots by the end of Tuesday’s action.
In fact, the top four finishers of that tournament remain alive. Mesa Vista, the two-time NRG champion, is the top seed in the 2A bracket and takes on No. 8 Laguna-Acoma, while runner-up Dulce is No. 7 and faces No. 2 Tatum in the Rio Rancho Events Center.
Meanwhile, the 2A quarterfinal between No. 3 Pecos and No. 6 Peñasco will be a rematch of the tournament’s third-place game — a thrilling 68-66 win in triple overtime by Pecos.
Lady Trojans head coach Jesse Boies said he is not surprised to see the NRG Conference represented so well.
“That NRG field was competitive,” Boies said. “Pecos is tough, and so are Dulce and Peñasco. It’s just good to see the Northern representing like this. And every team has taken on their own personalities and style of play. It brings out that competitiveness with each other. I mean, these girls are lit.”
While it might be a high-water mark for the long-time tournament, which has been around since the 1940s, the past several years foretold this year’s harvest of success. The previous two state tournaments saw three of the top four NRG finishers reach the quarterfinals, and the 2020 tournament had its two finalists — Peñasco and Pecos — make it that far. There was no tournament in the shortened 2021 spring season because of the coronavirus pandemic, but Pecos won the 2A title that year.
In each of the past seven seasons, the NRG has had one of its teams reach the 2A championship game.
Peñasco head coach Mandy Montoya said the NRG reflects the improved play of girls basketball in the North, and teams that succeed in the tournament reap the benefits of playing in it.
“It’s an opportunity to play some really strong teams in 2A all at one tournament,”
Montoya said. “Our district [5-2A] has been really strong, but so is Pecos’ district, and they’re one of the few [NRG] teams that plays outside of our district. Dulce has been strong for the past couple of years. It’s a really good preview and it gives everybody a chance to get ready for districts and gauge where you’re at.”
Even more significant are the crowds the NRG draws. Pecos and Peñasco played in front of a crowd of about 2,000 fans in the third-place game, while 2,500 showed up for the championship game between Mesa Vista and Dulce.
Those raucous crowds bring a postseason-like atmosphere to the tournament, which makes it easier to play in front of large crowds at Rio Rancho and The Pit for the title game.
But those large crowds were a precursor to the rest of the season. The crowds were big for the Pecos-Peñasco rematch and a Mesa Vista-Pecos matchup in mid-January. The Peñasco-Mesa Vista games drew near-sellouts the three times they played in 5-2A play and the district tournament championship.
Boies said Mesa Vista’s gym was almost full even for the 2A first-round game against Capitan, a 48-32 win Friday.
“Me, my principal [Richard Apodaca] and AD [Eric Vigil], we were like, ‘This is amazing to see,’ ” Boies said. “Man, Mesa Vista is not a huge gym, but to see it filled up like that, it was good to see.”
Montoya said another reason many Northern programs have improved over the past 10 years has been changes in nondistrict scheduling. Peñasco has played in regular-season tournaments against bigger schools, having gone to the West Las Vegas’ Brian Gallegos Tournament, the Taos Invitational, the St. Michael’s Lady Horsemen Christmas Tournament and Capital’s Al Armendariz Tournament over the past several years.
Pecos played at the Armendariz and the Lady Horsemen tournaments the past two seasons. Mesa Vista and Dulce
Peñasco head coach Mandy Montoya said the NRG reflects the improved play of girls basketball in the North and teams that succeed in the tournament reap the benefits of playing in it.
both were in Aztec’s Rumble in the Jungle Invitational this season and the Lady Trojans went to the Santa Fe Indian School’s Lady Braves Classic the past two seasons.
This year, Mesa Vista won all three regular-season tournaments, including beating the host Lady Braves in the championship game a week after winning the NRG title.
Peñasco’s overall strength of schedule was rated second-best in 2A, according to MaxPreps. com’s Freeman rankings.
“We’re competing against bigger schools and not backing down against them,” Montoya said. “The strength of schedule for a lot of [small] schools is really good.”
Still, that three-day stretch in early January at Española Valley has been instrumental in preparing teams for the rigors of the postseason.
The proof is in who’s still standing.