Tigers take two out of three district games
Los Alamos gets hot from three
Even though the Española Sundevils sport a 5-17 record in district 2-4A, Taos needed to win on Tuesday (Jan. 31) to vie for the top record in the district. Prior to Tuesday’s match against the Tigers, the Sundevils had already gotten the better of the Elks, Pintos and Hilltoppers and led the pack with regards to district head-to-head play at 3-0. After Tuesday’s 49-42 victory over Española Taos now leads the district at 3-1 and hold a tiebreaker over the Sundevils.
Taos outscored Española 11-6 in the first quarter and looking strictly at the box score that shows a dead even tie in the second and third quarters between the two teams, the Tigers couldn’t quite put the Sundevils away.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Tigers held on to a 37-32 lead, same as that initial five-point differential in the first quarter. Española was not reluctant to shoot from deep in the third and fourth quarters. A couple of times it resulted in airballs.
Daemon Ely scored three points the hard way by taking it to the basket for the and-1 opportunity. After hitting a free throw the Tigers led 43-36. Marcus Martinez fired back for the Sundevils making it 43-39. Another Ely score gave Taos a sixpoint lead near the three-minute mark. The scoreline stayed the same as the Tigers tried to hold on to the ball and waste a bit of clock. Needing to score with less than a minute to go the Sundevils used the hack-a-tiger tactic.
The Tigers took turns missing free throws in the 1-and-1 bonus. After the missed free throw Jacob Torresdey hit a three-pointer to bring it back to a five-point game.
Ely ended the tight district match with an exclamation dunk to settle it 49-42.
Up next the Tigers will have an out-of-state match against the Alamosa Mean Moose on Monday (Feb. 6).
Against the Hilltoppers The Hilltoppers defeated the Taos Tigers 64-59 on Saturday (Jan. 27).
Los Alamos Sophomore Josiah Fresquez doubled his season average, scoring 31 points against Taos. Center Ben McBride, at 6-foot-5, turned into early aughts era Ben Wallace with a couple of big blocks on both Daemon Ely and Xavier Duke to protect the paint.
Even though Los Alamos was outrebounded 50-22 by Taos, great shooting turned out to be the equalizer. The Hilltoppers shot 40 percent from three-point range and 82 percent from the free throw line. Niko Garcia, Fresquez and Kyle Evenhus, not only shot it well but shot the ball from several feet behind the three-point line.
Across the board Los Alamos shot better from the field with 42 percent compared to the Tigers’ 30 percent shooting.
The Taos Tigers basketball squad squashed the Moriarty Pintos 71-51 on Thursday (Jan. 26).
The Tigers’ “twin towers” took care of business against Moriarty. Duke and Ely, otherwise known as the “twin towers,” provided the heft of the scoring punch, combining for 55 of Taos’ 71 points.
Nine of Ely’s 39 points came from beyond the arc where he didn’t miss a shot (3-3). Ely also nabbed 17 rebounds for the impressive double double. The production of Duke and Ely was enough to overcome the 22 percent shooting (4-22) from the guards of Taos.