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Three Valencia County teams are off to the state basketball tournaments.
The 5A Los Lunas and 4A Valencia girls’ squads earned home court advantage, while Belen advanced to the 4A boys’ tournament after being squarely on the “bubble” until the brackets were revealed Sunday by the New Mexico Activities Association.
LLHS coach Manny Vigil was a bit disappointed in the Tigers drawing the seventh seed, leading to a home game at 6 p.m. Saturday against No. 10 Rio Rancho (20-10).
“They are way better than a 10 seed,” said Vigil, calling the Rams, “a tough draw for us.”
Rio Rancho has played well, with a recent win over No. 9 Volcano Vista and a narrow loss to fourth-seeded Farmington, both district rivals.
“They’ve got some really strong guards,” Vigil said, and are talented inside. “They’ve got some really big kids.”
The Rams have stayed competitive despite the partial absence of head coach Lori Mabrey, whose husband, Buster Mabrey, executive director of the New Mexico High School Coaches Association, died Dec. 30 after a lengthy illness.
Eric Jack has been coaching the team, with Mabrey assisting since mid-January.
LLHS (23-6) will continue to rely on pressure defense and up-tempo offense led by Vayda Galino and Tessa Jaramillo, with freshman Kayla Finley, 11.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, countering the Rams’ post players.
“We’re just ready to go. We’re excited to host a game, see if we can take care of business,” said Vigil, with the goal to “make it to the Pit,” for the state quarterfinals against either No. 2 Sandia or 15th seeded Centennial.
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In 4A, Valencia (23-7) has been ranked in the top five all season and will go into the tournament as a four seed against a familiar foe. The Jaguars will face at 6 p.m. Friday district rival Highland (14-14), the No. 14 seed. VHS went 3-0 against the Hornets.
“It’s hard to beat a team four times, but at the same time I like our matchup — across the board,” said Raymond Montoya, VHS coach.
After taking a deflating one game playoff loss to St. Pius at the start of last week to decide the top seed in the district tournament, the Jaguars found their footing. VHS won three games in five days over Belen, Highland and St. Pius to claim the district tournament title.
That stretch “gave us a chance to find our swagger again, find our rhythm, figure out how to get going again,” Montoya believes.
However far Valencia goes, they will look to guards Jaydn Montoya, 16.3 points, and Francesa Otero, 7.6 points, for firepower outside, with sisters Jaiden and Eden Montgomery anchoring in the paint.
Montoya says the players, “feel like we’ve earned where we are at. They like our route,” with either Albuquerque Academy or Silver as a possible quarterfinal opponent.
Despite a losing record, Belen (12-15) made the 4A boys’ tournament as a 14 seed.
“We felt we were in, but we had our fingers crossed,” said Donald Marquez, BHS coach.
Marquez believes a double-overtime victory at Grants during the district tournament and losses by potential bid-stealers Aztec and Portales in their tournament title games opened the door for the Eagles.
“If those teams would have won, it would have been really scary for us,” the coach said.
Speaking of scary, BHS will play 6 p.m. Saturday at Espanola Valley (22-6), the third seed.
“We know it’s going to be a tough environment — a hostile crowd,” according to Marquez. “I feel like playing at Grants and places like that have gotten us ready for this.”
The Sundevils are led by Josiah Fresquez, a senior guard, but Marquez believes Belen matches up well.
“What we do like is they’re a lot like us. They don’t have much size. We have different guards that have prepared us for a team like Espanola,” Marquez said.
Those guards include four seniors, Josiah Navarro, Jasode Harris, Damian Avila and Alan Moreno.
If the Eagles pull the upset, they are matched up against either No. 6 Silver or No. 11 Hope Christian.
Valencia was on the bubble in 4A but narrowly missed out on making the field. According to the NMAA, Valencia was tied for the final spot with Bloomfield and Goddard, with the Rockets taking the 16 seed based on criteria points.
It was a two-point loss Jan. 3 to Goddard that Valencia coach Jesse Hathoot believes kept the Jaguars out of the tournament.
“You don’t think of these things when you’re in the middle of the season,” Hathoot said about the loss. “That was ultimately the difference in not getting in. We’re pretty bummed out. We’ve been holding out hope all weekend.”
Hathoot stills believes VHS was among the top 16 teams in 4A, with victories over three schools in the field, including No. 2 Artesia.
“Ultimately, you’ve got to win more than nine games,” he said. “We’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves.”
In addition to Valencia, the Los Lunas (6-20) boys and the Belen (8-19) girls did not qualify for postseason play.
