La Cueva’s Exodus Ayers (center) puts down a long layup over Sandia’s Andrew Hill (left) and Ely Lovato in La Cueva on Wednesday. (Mike Sandoval/For the diary)
Gabe Trujillo’s last high-scoring season was his most important.
And his most memorable.
La Cueva High School’s Trujillo drove the baseline and threw a one-handed dunk with just under two minutes to go, and that slam seemed to put Sandia’s angry bid on hold for good as the third-place Bears held off the visiting Matadors 59-52 in a matchup for the first place in District 2-5A on Wednesday night.
Trujillo finished with 21 points for La Cueva (14-2, 3-0).
The game was played in front of a small crowd as each player and coach from both schools was allowed a maximum of two spectators under revised Albuquerque Public Schools guidelines that went into effect with Wednesday’s schedule.
“To be honest, we just played good defense,” said the 6-foot-4 Trujillo, a veteran forward. “That meant insult and that’s what got me going.”
Trujillo finished 10 of 12 from the floor for the Bears, who led from start to finish, albeit never comfortably.
“Gabe is really efficient,” said Brian Joyce, La Cueva coach. “So he doesn’t need a lot of touches and the ones he gets are quality touches. Our guys do a good job of feeding him in the right position and then he takes advantage of that because we have guys who are difficult to defend against dribbling.”
The Bears scored the first seven points of the game against the Matadors (10-7, 2-1), who were without their best player, 6-5 senior Sean Johnson, to attend to a personal matter. Sandia coach Danny Brown wasn’t sure when Johnson would return to the lineup.
However, Sandia persevered and kept the Bears on their toes until the end.
La Cueva took a 20-7 lead early in the second quarter after a 3-pointer and layup from Trujillo. But the Matadors reduced the gap to 22:14 by half-time.
Sandia was in chase mode throughout the second half, but La Cueva kept the matadors at bay for the most part.
Sandia took the deficit to 53-48 with 2:00 remaining, but Trujillo’s dunk at the other end was an emphatic response.
Exodus Ayers led the Bears with 22 points and made all 10 of his free throws.
Ely Lovato had 15 points for Sandia, all in the second half. Andrew Hill led the Matadors with 16 points.
La Cueva shot 21 of 41 (51%) from the field.
The Bears have a quick turnaround now as they leave their district to host No. 4-ranked Atrisco Heritage on Thursday.
The Bears and Jaguars split two meetings this season. Atrisco Heritage won the recent meeting in the semi-finals of the underground tournament.
• Also on Wednesday night, in a top-flight Class 4A matchup, Highland in first place (12-3 agg, 2-0 in 5-4A) went against St Pius (11-5, 1-1) to beat third- Rank Sartans 43-35. The Hornets held St. Pius to just seven points in the first half.
Jose Murillo’s 15 points was Highland’s best team.
THE CAVE 59, SANDIA 52
SANDIA (10-7, 2-1 in 2-5A): Andrew Hill 16, Dalen Moyer 13, Dylan D’Arco 2, Daniel Brown 3, Lamarion Coleman 2, Alex Rosales 1, Ely Lovato 15. Overall 19 7-9 52
THE CAVE (14-2, 3-0): Exodus Ayers 22, Ced Yates 6, Josiah Guliford 4, Gabe Trujillo 21, Daniel Jacobsen 2, Deven Dyer 4. Overall 21 14-17 59.
Sandia 7 7 15 23 – 52
The Cave 13 9 18 19 — 59
3-point goals: W 7 (Hill 3, Moyer 2, Brown, Lovato); LC 2 (Ayers 2, Trujillo). Total fouls: S 14; LC 12
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