Saturday, February 24, 2007

LLHS boys basketball team keeping its fingers crossed

Tigers think they deserve a berth in state playoffs

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

Los Lunas After losing the District 5-5A boys basketball tournament opener 82-65 at Rio Grande Tuesday, the Los Lunas Tigers' state tournament fate rests in the hands of an NMAA committee.

Ten teams secure state playoffs by virtue of advancing to district championship games.

The committee selects six at-large berths, then seeds the 16-team field. The brackets are due to be posted Sunday afternoon on the NMAA Web site: www.nmact.org.

LLHS coach Albert Aragon said he felt the Tigers, who are 12-15 overall, deserved to be included in the state tournament.

"I think we should have the opportunity to get in, but it could go either way," he said.

Several factors support the Tigers' case.

Aragon pointed to the fact that Los Lunas had the 14th most wins of any Class 5A team. He also noted that Los Lunas competes in a district that includes four teams in the top 10 of the Albuquerque Journal's latest coaches poll.

"I think most people would concede our district is one of the toughest. Every game in our district is a battle, so we'll see," said Aragon, whose team went 2-6 in district play.

The coach is hoping the committee will notice that the Tigers beat four teams that were ranked in the top 10 this season and lost close games to third-ranked Manzano and seventh-ranked Eldorado during the regular season.

Based on the basketball that's been played so far, it appears four of 5A's 22 schools can be discounted for at-large berths. Oñate, Santa Fe and West Mesa are the only teams with fewer than 10 wins. Though Carlsbad has 10 wins, the Cavemen are just 2-9 against 5A teams.

Fourteen other schools appear to have strong holds on making the final field. That leaves Los Lunas contending with Albuquerque High, Cibola and Mayfield for two playoff spots.

The Tigers beat AHS this year, but lost to Cibola.

Coach Aragon said his players certainly deserved the opportunity to play in the state tournament, describing them as "the cream of the crop at Los Lunas High School."

The players think they've earned it too.

"We beat some good teams and lost a lot of close games. We deserve to be in it," said junior Matt Billups.

Billups scored nearly half of the Tigers' points in the loss to Rio Grande on Tuesday, finishing with 31. But his performance was overshadowed by those of Rio's Samuel Lente, Alex Rogan and Isaac Telles.

"Rio Grande has three really good players. They're all quick, and they can handle the ball," Aragon said of the trio. "Defensively, we weren't able to stop them. They were able to penetrate and get shots off. And you can't play zone against them because it allows them to square up and get their feet under them."

Lente scored 24 points, and Rogan and Telles added 19 apiece.

Talib Abdul-Hakeem chipped in 12 points for Los Lunas.

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