Capital High boys roll over St. Michael’s Friday, face Hobbs today in final day of annual Capital City Tournament

Capital High boys roll over St. Michael’s Friday, face Hobbs today in final day of annual Capital City/Bobby Rodriguez round robin at Toby Roybal Memorial gymnasium

Host Santa Fe High turns back Santa Fe Indian School, plays Roswell tonight while Braves face St. Michael’s

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

When this season’s version of the Capital High boy’s basketball team goes on a run, it becomes a sprint, then a rout.

Winners of six out of seven starts, the Jaguars made St. Michael’s their latest victim, this a 73-37 romp over their cross-town rivals in the round robin of the annual Capital City/Bobby Rodriguez tournament hosted by Santa Fe High at the Tony Roybal Memorial gymnasium on Friday.

Benny Gomez’ team did the usual, share the ball, run the ball, play pressure defense and call on its balanced attack. The Horsemen had no answer and dropped to 2-3 under first-year head coach David Rodriguez in his return to the court where he coached the Demons for two decades.

The Jags sped into the lead quickly, making good on eight of their first dozen shorts while St. Michael’s committed nine turnovers and could connect on only one of its first nine attempts from the floor. After one quarter, it trailed 19-5, and the lead only grew from there.

As the score mounted, every Capital player made the scoring column, with Antonio (T.J.) Salazar leading the way with 14 points, one more than senior Tyler Alarid. On the Jags’ initial possession, Seth Arroyos scored inside and

Aaron Garcia followed with a bucket off the glass to set the tone of this contest.

For the Horsemen, Thomas was the leading scorer with a dozen points.

The next stop for Capital is today’s conclusion of the tournament with a 3:30 meeting with Hobbs (2-2), which lost 68-60 to Roswell Friday. St. Michael’s wlll play Santa Fe Indian School (3-3), a 79-64 loser to Santa Fe High. The Demons (4-3) face Roswell (4-2) in the 7:30 p.m. closer,

Santa Fe High gained a 20-15 lead after one quarter, increased it to 36-26 at the half, and then the Braves outscored the Demons 19-15 in the third quarter before the host school responded in the final eight minutes to win going away.

Senior Victor Salcido led Santa Fe High with 21 points, but will miss the game against Roswell after being ejected in the final 90 seconds of the contest. Antonio Lovato was next with 18 points while Isaiah Andermann and Diego Salinas added 10 apiece.

For Indian School, James Bridges led the scoring with 20 points, 14 coming in the second half. Raheem Alonzo contributed 12 points and Anders Pecos scored 11.