Capital downs Santa Fe Indian School, but St. Michael’s loses to Roswell and Santa Fe High to Hobbs

Capital downs Santa Fe Indian School, but St. Michael’s loses to Roswell and Santa Fe High to Hobbs in the Capital City/Bobby Rodriguez round robin at Toby Roybal Memorial gymnasium

Today, it’s Capital against St. Michael’s and Indian School versus host Santa Fe High

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

Head coach David Rodriguez’ return to Toby Roybal Memorial gymnasium didn’t go too well when his St. Michael’s team dropped a 67-47 decision to defending state 5A champion Roswell in the opening round of the annual Capital City/Bobby Rodriguez basketball round robin Thursday.

Rodriguez had been coaching boy’s basketball at Santa Fe High for about two decades, and is now in the same role with the Horsemen. This time, he sat on the visitor’s bench and found his way to the visitor’s locker room.

“Honestly, I didn’t even think about it,” he said. “In that way, it was just another game. I didn’t put any thought into it at all.”

Maybe so, and his new team did keep the contest close early on. The Coyotes are only 3-2, but they employed a deeper and taller lineup to pull away and drop the Horsemen to 2-2. A 6-0 run near the end of the first quarter brought an 18-10 lead that grew to doubles figures early in the second quarter.

Free throws hurt St. Michael’s as it made good on only two of 11 tries in the first half and finished with seven of 19. Turnovers didn’t help either, with

the Horsemen committing 29. In the final quarter, Roswell broke away to a 25-point advantage behind 6-foot-7 senior Logan Eaker, with the big guy scoring 14, taking down the same number of rebounds, and blocking four shots. The Horsemen did not have a played in twin figures,

Santa Fe High didn’t fare well either. It dropped a 87-73 count to Hobbs (3-1) and evened its record at 3-3. The Demons received a team-high 22 points from senior Victor Salcido and Isaiah Andermann added 21. The Eagles trailed at 43-41, but took over behind their full-court pressure defense.

Capital had no problem handing Santa Fe Indian School, 70-44, and rolled to its fifth win in six starts while the Braves had their four-game win streak halted and dropped to 4-2. The Jaguars led 38-24 at halftime and then turned it into a rout with a 17-5 run down the stretch.

Senior point guard Tyler Alaird led Capital with 10 points as head coach Benny Gomez went to his reserves early. All of Alaird’s points came in the opening half. James Bridges had the game-high 17 points for the Braves.

The round robin continues today with Roswell playing Hobbs at 12:30 p.m., St. Michael’s meeting up with Capital at 2:30 p.m., and Indian School and Santa Fe High matching up at 7 p.m.