Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Tiger boys hoop team goes 2-1 at Gallup

Los Lunas travels to top-ranked Cibola for final district tune-up

T.S. Last News-Bulletin Sports Editor; tlast@news-bulletin.com

Gallup The Los Lunas High School boys basketball team would like to play last week's opening-round game of the Gallup Invitational a third time.

The first time, the Tigers lost to Española Valley, 50-43. Not surprisingly, Los Lunas lost by the same score when head coach Albert Aragon made the team watch a videotape replay of the game.

"I was disturbed by our play against Española," Aragon explained. "There's no doubt Española Valley was a game we should have won."

If the two teams played again, the outcome might be different. But last Thursday's game against the Sundevils was the only one that counts.

Los Lunas started slow but recovered from a 10-5 deficit after the first quarter to take a 22-18 lead at the half. But Española Valley's Ryan Martinez scored 21 of his game-high 28 points in the second half to lead the Sundevils to the win.

Martinez wasn't so much the issue, according to Aragon, who said Los Lunas' biggest problem was decision-making. The Tigers did themselves in, he said, with 16 turnovers. "That's too many turnovers against a team that's not pressuring us. It (turnovers) is something we've been stressing and working on."

So the coach made the team watch the game on videotape and chart statistics. That way, they could see where and how they were making their mistakes.

"I think that making them watch the game and keep stats made a big difference," the coach said. "We came back and played a good game against Los Alamos, and, the third game, we beat a pretty good Moriarty team. We cut down on the turnovers in both games."

Against Los Alamos on Friday, point guard Isaiah Herrera took care of the ball and scored nine of his 15 points in the second quarter as Los Lunas built a 27-20 lead by halftime. The Tigers had to fight off a charge by the Hilltoppers in the third quarter, but post Richard Davis scored eight of his team-high 19 points in the final period as Los Lunas held on for a 50-44 win.

Los Lunas scored another six-point win over Moriarty on Saturday. The Tigers created the advantage in the third quarter when they outscored the Pintos 18-12. Each team scored 22 points in a fast-paced fourth quarter, and Los Lunas came away with a 64-58 victory.

Davis again led Los Lunas with 19 points. Alex Stein added 13, and Dustin Chewiwi chipped in 10.

The wins improved Los Lunas' record to 7-8. The Tigers have one more game before they start District 3-5A play. The final tune-up will be against Cibola, which is 9-0 and has taken over the top spot in Class 5A in the Albuquerque Journal coaches poll.

"It'll be a good measuring stick for us in our district," said Aragon, pointing out that the Cougars have already beaten Los Lunas' district foes Las Cruces High by 25 points and Alamogordo by 14.

The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at Cibola.

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