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Home / News / Pojoaque Valley broke away with a quick lead, ahead 14-0 before visiting Taos scored in the District 2-4A game, and kept the lead until the Tigers hung around to force overtime and a 67-65 win on Noah Armijo’s basket

Pojoaque Valley broke away with a quick lead, ahead 14-0 before visiting Taos scored in the District 2-4A game, and kept the lead until the Tigers hung around to force overtime and a 67-65 win on Noah Armijo’s basket

By Arnie Leshin 
There’s just how long you can allow a team to hang around.
Such was the case Saturday nightwhen Taos visited Pojoaque Valley in a boy’s District 2-4A clash. The Elks poured in on early, racing in front all the way to a 14-0 lead before Edgar Varela tossed in a three for the Tigers. No matter, with the home team scoring the next five points and the lead ballooned to 19-3.
Enough to force Taos to surrender? Nope, no even after falling behind 21-5.  Not even after trailing 35-21 at intermission, no way after the Elks stayed on top in the third quarter, then leading 43-31, heading into the final eight minutes.
But the Tigers were still there, and with five minutes remaining, were down 50-43. Then it became a battle to the finish, with Taos getting to 53-48, 55-50, 57-53, but with two minutes showing on the clock, the Elks upped their lead to 61-53.
And here come the Tigers, roaring their way to a 63-61 deficit, trimming it to 63-62, but a pair of Pojoaque free throws upped the lead to 65-62, but a 3 from Taos’ Abdul Thwis knotted things at 65-all forced overtime.
Up to now, the Tigers had never taken the lead, but with the time under a minute of OT, Noah Armijo tossed in a 2 for his 33rd points of the contest and finally not only did Taos go in front, but won the game in an amazing comeback spread out over the final three quarters.
At Espanola McCurdy, Pecos still had plenty left after turning back visiting 5A Clovis, 58-54, on Friday night then dominating McCurdy, 77-36, and is now 18-1, and 101-8 in the stretch run of its fourth year that include three-straight state championships in 3A and 2A.
Paving the way was 6-foot-1 senior forward Xavier Padilla with a game-high 29 points, and he also brought down six rebounds and handed out three assists. Seniors Ismael Villegas, the 6-3 post, and Anthony Armijo, the 5-10 point guard, added 14 and 12 points, respectively, while senior forward Juan Varela took down seven rebounds.
Padilla and Armijo found the range for a pair of 3s, the team made 34-of-60 tries from the field (57 percent), with Padilla making good on 13-of-20 attempts.
In other boy’s games, Robertson overwhelmed Santa Fe Indian School, 65-25, in District 2-3A, Espanola Valley topped Moriarty, 64-57, in 2-4A, and St. Michael’s headed up to Raton and brought back a 2-3A, 66-35, rout over the Tigers.
In girl’s games, it was Pecos dominating McCurdy, 62-23, in the opener of the doubleheader, West Las Vegas stunned Indian School, 53-42, in 2-3A, and Los Alamos lost a 65-37 non district contest versus Albuquerque La Cueva.

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