High-scoring Capital’s boys handle the slow-down challenge of visiting Los Lunas to win Tuesday night’s non district clash of 5A teams

Tonight, St. Michael’s boys are home to undefeated Espanola Valley, the top team in 5A, in a non district test

By Arnie Leshin

It doesn’t get any easier for the St. Michael’s boys basketball team.

With a four-game losing streak on the line, the Horsemen (5-7) get a visit tonight from undefeated Espanola Valley, the No. 1-ranked team in 5A.

Tuesday night, Capital High, ranked third in 5A. met up with visiting Los Lunas, and the No. 2 team in 5A will probably have to trade spots after a 44-40 setback to the Jaguars, who advanced to 12-2.

And where do the Horsemen stand for this non district tough task and the Sundevils at 12-0. Well, they did hang s 63-50 surprise on the Jags, but that was avenging the previous 73-37 romp applied by Capital.

So it figures to be a rather slowdown game versus Espanola, which had a pair of close games, 65-60 over Silver, and 66-64 over Kirtland Central in overtime. Otherwise, the Sundevils won handily.

This was not the case at Capital. Los Lunas came in at 11-2 and knew it would have to slow things down against the highest scoring team in the state. The Jaguars have been averaging 74.8 points per game, but the Tigers’ purpose was to keep the score down, which they did.

It changed the home team’s game, but it never gained much of an advantage for the visitors.

But they did hit six straight points from the end of the third quarter to the start of the fourth, and that turned a 29-24 deficit to a 34-32 lead, the first for the Tigers since the opening minutes of the physical contest.

It also came at a time when Capital went cold, especially starting senior guard Tyler Alarid. In one possession late in the third quarter, he missed three shots in a row, and that included air balling back-to-back 3s. But it didn’t faze him.

After converting a pair of free throws, teammate A.J. Sanchez stole the ball and found Alarid open in the right corner and he tossed in a 3 for a 37-34 lead with 3:48 remaining.

In a rare grind-it-out type of game, the Jaguars kept making plays when they had to. Sanchez came away with another steal and converted it into a breakaway layup to up the lead to 39-36 with 2:15 to go.

Then, after Los Lunas cut the gap to 39-38 and a steal and layup by senior forward A.J. Garcia to trail by 39-38, Capital junior post Matt Smith drove down the lane and found wide-open Aaron Garcia for a layup and a 41-38 advantage with 1:15 remaining.

The Jags finished by going a clutch four-for-four from the foul line, while the Tigers made only 4-of-11 overall and that included a 3-for-9 stretch in the third quarter.

Early on, Alarid scored eight of his 15 points in the opening quarter and Sanchez added a 3 for a quick 11-5 lead. Then, when Los Lunas tied the score at 13-all, it was Aaron Garica responding with a 3 that began a 6-0 run.

Trying to throw the Jaguars’ game off, it worked to keep the score down, but
it didn’t stop Capital from maintaining its composure, something it didn’t do in the losses to Pecos and St. Michael’s.

“That’s where we’ve got to stay up and alert and just play hard,” said Jaguars’ head coach Benny Gomez. “We need to play through all that stuff and keep our composure and make things work and give ourselves a chance.”

Even when the Tigers kept switching a variety of zone defenses and man-to-man to throw Capital off balance, the Jags just never let the game get away from them and was the better team when it called for it down the stretch.