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Home / Sports News / Santa Fe Prep boys win their fifth straight Thursday by topping Laguna-Acoma, 62-50, behind the play of senior Sam Sparks in the quarterfinals of the Lion Classic at Santa Rosa.

Santa Fe Prep boys win their fifth straight Thursday by topping Laguna-Acoma, 62-50, behind the play of senior Sam Sparks in the quarterfinals of the Lion Classic at Santa Rosa.

By Arnie Leshin 
Arnie Leshin

Santa Fe Prep senior Sam Sparks is quite versatile. He excels in several sports, and one of them is basketball.

 

So in Thursday’s quarterfinals of the Lion Classic played at Santa Rosa, the 6-foot-3 Sparks was there to pave the way to the Griffins’ fifth straight win, a 62-50 success over Laguna-Acoma that put Prep in today’s semifinals against the host Lions.

 

Monte del Sol and Desert Academy were also Santa Fe schools in the mix, but only the Griffins remained in the winner’s bracket and increased their record to 7-4 after a 2-4 start.

 

As for Sparks, he picked up his third foul in the third quarter to send him to the bench. At that time, He had 15 points. But in the fourth quarter, he added eight more points that included a pair of 3-pointers and brought him the game-high of 21 points.

 

He also received help from 6-1 senior teammate Sean Coles on the backboards, and head coach Brent Cooper was happy with the effort, adding that every one on his team contributed to this victory. And this including making good on 12 of 14 attempts from the foul line.

 

Santa Rosa (9-3) made its way to the semis by rolling over Monte del Sol, 94-62, to drop the 7-7 Dragons into the consolation bracket. Then there was Estancia (9-2) earning the other semi berth against Newcomb with no problem in dominating Desert Academy, 75-40, and sending it into the consolation bracket with a 2-7 record.

 

Newcomb advanced by turning back Gateway Christian, 58-48.

 

Elsewhere in boy’s play, there were all non district games as district time time neared. Menaul downed Academy of Technology and The Classics, 75-30, Albuquerque Hope Christian moved on to the semifinals of its own tournament by disposing of Cobre, 67-34, Taos topped Bloomfield, 66-56, in the same tourney, as did St. Pius X over West Las Vegas, 60-30, while Los Alamos edged Albuquerque Del Norte, 60-56.

 

In girl’s action, Hope Christian won 68-28, over Taos in its own tournament, as did Los Lunas over West Las Vegas, 75-26, Penasco took charge of Espanola McCurdy in a 55-28 romp, Texico won over Lovington, 45-35, Mora trampled Tierra Encantada, 85-11, and Menual won handily over ATC, 52-27.

 

Tonight, the Santa Fe Indian School girls are at Escalante and Pojoaque is at Gallup, which handed the Elkettes a 20-point loss last week.

 

Saturday, Espanola Valley hits the road for Gallup, Pecos plays at Tucumcari, and ATC heads for Jemez Valley. It’s a doubleheader at Jemez Valley as it also faces the ATC boys. Same with Pecos’ boys and girls at Tucumcari, while the Capital boys are at former district rival Espanola, and Indian School’s boys are at Ruidoso.

 

District play begins for most schools on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

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