Tigers bounce back against Pojoaque
The final score against Pojoaque on Tuesday (Feb. 8) would suggest a dominant performance from the Tigers. In some ways, it was. In other ways, not so much. On paper 90th ranked Pojoaque should have been blown out of the water in the opening minutes, but the matchup proved more competitive than the Tigers likely anticipated.
The Tigers played like a team still recovering from the bitter loss in their previous game against Española. They were visibly frustrated and committed sloppy turnovers. On one set play, through some sort of misunderstanding, the ball was passed back to Matthew Mondragon who was looking away, trying to initiate an action on the play. The ball went out of bounds.
Late in the first quarter the Elks took the lead 13-12 after a couple of Derek Sanchez field goals. Then a Matthew Gomez jump shot extended the lead to 3 for the Elks, 15-12. That would turn out to be their highest point of the game, but their lead didn’t last long. Taos took control of the game soon after through the tenacity of Xavier
Duke on the boards. He shot 6 of 7 from the charity stripe in the first half and helped spark life back into the Tigers. The Tigers led 31-26 at halftime.
The Elks stayed within reach until Anthony Padilla started knocking down three pointers in the second half. Padilla finished with 25 points. The play of the game goes to Daemon Ely, who threw a rainbow full court pass that landed gently onto the hands
of Padilla near the basket for the assist.
The Tigers were unable to contain Sanchez. Not slowing down explosive guards with quick handles could pose problems for Taos down the line in districts. To be fair, Sanchez excels at scoring. He averages 18.4 points a game and scored 20 of Pojoaque’s 49 points.
The Tigers improve to 18-5 and play an away game against Moriarty on Friday (Feb. 11).