Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe Prep, and Pecos won their respective districts

Santa Fe Indian School girls, Santa Fe Prep boys, and the Pecos boys and girls won their respective districts and will play host to the tournament finals with an automatic berth in the state tourney Second place finishers in district are Capital boys and girls, St. Michael’s boys, and they will host the semifinals,
most likely with a Thursday doubleheader at Capital

By Arnie Leshin

Going to be a busy Thursday for the high school basketballs teams in the Santa Fe area.

Capital High, in fact, might be playing host for a boys and girls doubleheader. Both programs grabbed the second spot in District 2-5A and will play their semifinals on the Jaguars’ court.

Capital does owe some thanks to district rival Espanola Valley, which made this possible when its district-champion Sundevil boys wiped out visiting Albuquerque Del Norte Friday night, and their girls did the same when Del Norte paid a visit Saturday night.

First-year Jaguar head coach Darren Casados’ rejuvenated girls did advantage of this to claim the second spot at 5-3, while Del Norte dropped to 4-4.

As for the Jag boys, they won a tiebreaker with the Knights to finish 5-3 in district, same as Del Norte, but Capital had the plus-4 point differential over the Knights.

This was important, for if the Jaguars placed third, it would damage their state tournament seeding and put them behind Del Norte. No worry now.

Now the Capital (20-6) boys await the survivor of the earlier district tournament games that involve Del Norte, fourth place Albuquerque Academy, and last place Los Alamos.

Same with their girls, who are 13-13 overall, they, too, do not play until the district semis against Del Norte, Academy and Los Alamos in the same order as the boys.
The finish of the boys and girls was identical. Thus, the opening round for both will send Los Alamos to Academy, with the winners going against Del Norte.

In 2-4A boys, St. Michael’s (12-14) also settled into the runner-up spot with its key win Friday night at West Las Vegas. The Horsemen finished ahead of the Dons, Las Vegas Robertson and Pojoaque Valley.

Here, the first round will pair the Elkettes at the Cardinals, with the winner facing West Las Vegas. As for the girls, it looks like St. Michael’s (9-16) won the last place tiebreaker over Taos and will play host to the first rounder between the two.

In 5-4A, the Santa Fe Indian Schools (22-4) girls handily won the district title and will play the last surviving team in the final. In the first round, it will be East Mountain at Albuquerque Sandia Prep.

The Brave boys, though, placed fourth and will host Albuquerque Bosque School in the opening round. Bernalillo easily won the district at 8-0 and is 25-1 overall.

In 3-3A, the Pecos girls posted a 22-4 regular-season record and will play host to the district finals against either Tierra Encantada, Raton, Desert Academy, or Academy of Technology and The Classic.

The Panther boys, the defending state 3A champion, heads the standings in their district and will also play in the final versus one of those same schools.
Pecos is 23-3 overall.

In 2-3A, the Santa Fe Prep boys finished on top and are 13-7 overall, but the Griffin girls were winless in 16 starts.

In 2-6A, the Santa Fe High girls finished off the regular season with a 10th straight win and came in last at 0-10 in district and 9-17 overall. The Demonettes will play an opening round contest at Albuquerque Manzano.

The Demons, though, came in fourth and will play the winner of the first-rounder that sends Clovis to Albuquerque Sandia. That survivor then takes on Santa Fe High, which is 12-14 overall.