Santa Fe’s Paul Lovato, left, rebounds away from Valley’s Isaac Tapia during Saturday’s game at Belen High School. The Demons won in extra time to claim the Hub City tournament title. (Mike Sandoval / for the journal)
Las Cruces, Santa Fe and Volcano Vista won the boys’ basketball tournament championships on Saturday, as did the girls from Farmington and La Cueva when four events in the metro area ended.
JOE ARMIJO CLASSIC: The Bulldawgs (7-0) raged 67:33 over hosts Albuquerque Academy in the final game of the tournament late Saturday when Senior Guard Deuce Benjamin, Armijo’s Most Valuable Player, scored the top 34 points – 30 of them that come in the first 2½ quarters.
“We always have a lot of fun playing basketball,” said Benjamin. “We have a lot of team chemistry so it’s fun out there.”
Las Cruces split from Academy (5-2) with a 14-0 run that started late in the first quarter and continued into the first half of the second quarter. Benjamin and 7-footer Isaiah Carr combined for the final 12 points of this run, including a three-point game by Benjamin that he finished with his left hand in traffic. His last two spots of the evening were the result of a one-handed tomahawk dunk early in the fourth quarter.
His father, William, the Las Cruces coach, got high marks for his son’s efforts this week.
“Deuce does a great job distributing the ball. It’s not he who only shoots up the shots to get 30 points, ”said coach Benjamin. “He’s doing a great job involving his teammates.”
Carr finished the deal with 17 points (including five dunks) for the Bulldawgs, who are returning to the metropolitan area on Tuesday night for a non-district match with Los Lunas.
Kellan Gehres had nine points to lead the Chargers.
n In the girls’ final, Farmington (6-0) defeated Las Cruces (5-2) 64:46. Scorpio guardian Kiiyani Anitielu was named tournament MVP and she had family businesses across the tournament team, with both Kamalani Anitielu and Kapiolani Anitielu recognized for their work. These three combined 37 points on Saturday evening; Kamalani had 20 points, 17 of them in a sensational first half in which she lost five threesomes.
“We’re pretty good at the moment … but we still have a lot to do,” said Kiiyani Anitielu. “So the work is not done yet.”
Audrey Henderson added 18 points for Farmington, adding a dozen 3s to the win.
“This team is full of shooters,” said Kiiyani Anitielu.
Las Cruces’ purple Ashida led all scorers with 25 points.
– James Yodice
PHIL GRIEGO INVITATIONAL: In Cleveland, the unbeaten Volcano Vista (7-0) took 20 against the Storm (3-1) in the first half and took the Griego title with an 81:70 win in Rio Rancho.
With an effective outside play with four consecutive 3-pointers and an inside play with a trio of dunks of 6-8 Junior Sean ages, the Hawks led 49-29 at halftime.
Volcano Vista had offset its 26:13 lead at the end of the first quarter with a 12-0 run in the second third.
Cleveland used an 11-0 run late in the third quarter to get within nine.
Volcano Vista Senior Guard Ja’Kwon Hill scored nine of his 26 points in the fourth quarter when the Hawks held Cleveland in check.
Age scored 14 for the Hawks and Kaden Valdez added 12.
The Storm had four players in double digits: Antonio Avila had 17, Daniel Steverson had 14, and Cole Savage and Nic Trujillo added 11 each.
“There’s no question that they are a good team; We know they are a good team, “said Cleveland coach Sean Jimenez. “I’m just proud of our boys, how we fought in the second half.
“We didn’t play that well in the first half; We were a bit like a deer in the headlights, ”he said. “It’s a learning curve for us; We have four sophomores on this team who play many minutes. … We’ll be fine when we get to the district. “
– Gary Herron
HUB CITY, BELEN: Valley (5-1) beat a 10 point deficit in the fourth quarter to force extra time, but Santa Fe (7-0) kept the Vikings goalless in four-minute OT as the Demons kept the Vikings 45. beat -40 in the tournament finals on Saturday afternoon.
Valley trailed 37:27 in the fourth quarter but came from behind to take the lead late in regulation before the demons responded with a bucket to tie the game at 40.
An early free throw gave the Demons the lead in extra time, followed by a decisive basket from Lucas Turner, who put Santa Fe 43:40 ahead.
RIO RANCHO GIRLS INVITATION: The La Cueva defense took control of things for the most part on Saturday night as the Bears beat hosts Rams 44:25 in the championship game.
“Rio Rancho is pretty big and we were just talking about how to keep them off the boards and we did a good job pestering their guards so they’d have a hard time getting the ball in,” said La Cueva trainer Marisa Cogan.
The Bears extended from a 15-11 halftime lead with a big third quarter as they beat Rio Rancho 20-5.
Eva Love was 10 points ahead of La Cueva.
Comments are closed.