tournament bounces in today for the girls, with the boys taking the court Saturday

Check out state basketball informative data as tournament bounces in today for the girls, with the boys taking the court Saturday Texico girls and boys are top seeds on 3A, and Wolverines
boys the only undefeated team as play begins, with St. Michael’s boys the initial state champion back in 1942

By Arnie Leshin 

Informative data regarding state basketball then and now, a chance to check out some trivia free of charge.

Let’s start with unblemished records for this season. There’s only one and it’s the Texico boys at 26-0. Through the years, there’s been 18 girls and 14 boy’s teams that went unbeaten. There’s been no domination among the boys, but Albuquerque Eldorado stands out among the girls. It has done it a record grand total of nine.

Its first undefeated campaign began in 1976 (23-0). Then it added on 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1989, and 1999, all 26-0 seasons for the girls. No such thing for the boys.

As for the other unbeatens, Clovis, Pojoaque Valley and Kirtland Central have twice accomplished this. The rest of the girl’s teams that have done so once each are Roy, Animas. Shiprock, and San Juan, which did so in 1973,

Hobbs leads the boys with a trio of unbeaten teams, while Cliff, St. Michael’s and Albuquerque St. Pius X have turned in two unblemished campaigns.

The Horsemen were the first. It came in 1942, one year after Pearl Harbor was attacked and we declared war on Japan. St. Michael’s won all of its 24 starts. The next boy’s team to do this was Hobbs in 1966. As for Texico, its boys have accomplished this five times and its girls seven.

In state championships, Hobbs leads the boy’s charts with 16, one more than Albuquerque High. Hope Christian is next with 11, and Los Cruces and Albuquerque nine times each.

In state titles regarding the girls, Kirtland Central has won 19 times, and that places the Broncos on top of the heap of all schools. Then comes Eldorado with 15, Clayton with a dozen, and Clovis with seven.

Then there’s the yearly streaks, with the longest ones being eight in a row by Kirtland Central’s girls from 1980 to 1987, and Clayton’s girls from 1983 to 1990. Of the boys, Hobbs went five years of domination. Now Hope Christian’s boys won five in a row, lost in the state final to St. Michael’s, and won the next two.

Presently, the school with the best boys/girls season record-wise is Texico, which is the top in both genders of 3A. The Wolverines are 48-4. But the most wins come from Silver’s total of 55 to go with 10 losses. At 51-5 is Los Cruces.

Next comes Pecos at 41-7, followed by Hobbs at 46-11, Moriarty at 42-12, Eldorado at 43-7 and Portales at 40-14.

Some schools fared well in the seeding that gave them first-round home games, and that went to 16 schools.

The toughest road tests are in front of West Las Vegas and Espanola McCurdy. The 11th seeded Bobcats need to travel twice to 6th seeded Tularosa, the girls on Friday and the 10th seeded boys on Saturday, with the Wildcat boys the 7th seed. It’s not that McCurdy doesn’t have an impressive record, 19-10 girls and 18-8 boys, but a long trip doesn’t favor the visitors.

As for West Las Vegas, its girls are the 6th seed in 4A, but defending state champion Albuquerque Hope Christian will be playing at home, and that spells trouble for the Dons. The WLV girls travel to Moriarty as the 11th seed, but the Pintos are 4th seed and one of the better teams in their class.

But none of this seems to matter once the teams take the court, home or away. The ball takes funny bounces.

As for last year’s champions. Albuquerque Sandia in girl’s 6A didn’t even make state this time. In 5A, the Roswell Goddard will at least have a chance to defend its title, Hope Christian in 4A, too, as well as Tobachi in 3A. In 1A, Elda is looking to win its 8th straight championship, whole Tatum goes in defense in 2A.
The boy’s field has defending champions. Pecos in 3A, Hope in 4A, Roswell in 5A, and Albuquerque Volcano Vista in 6A.
And while this indoor championship is going on, outdoors is where you will find the spring season competition, as in golf, tennis, track and field, baseball and softball.