Capital’s boys hit the road for runner-up Albuquerque Manzano in the Friday night 5-5A district tournament semifinals, the winner plays in the final Saturday night at top seed Santa Fe High

Well, the Albuquerque Manzano head boy’s basketball coach Dominick Romero couldn’t be happier. After losing twice in three days up in Santa Fe last week, he gets to stay home now for Friday night’s District 5-5A semifinals versus Capital.

But if he wins this one, it’s back to the City Different Saturday to play at Santa Fe High for the district tournament championship.

But the 4^th seeded Jaguars, who won at home, 52-44, over the Monarchs, T lost 52-49 in Albuquerque, try to follow up Wednesday night’s 62-55 overtime win at 3^rd seeded Albuquerque High (8-17) hopeful that 5-foot-9 junior T.J. Sanchez can play after he injured his ankle just before the overtime.

Sanchez has been the team’s leader scorer down the stretch, scoring 16 versus the Bulldogs before hobbling off the court. But this time he had help as junior Brandon Saiz came away with 18 points, and sophomore Dominic Luna added 13.

Meanwhile, the Jaguars had to rally in order to gain their fourth-straight 20-win season. They’ve lost eight times. They trailed 39-33 after three quarters, but soared back via their defense to go ahead 49-41 with 1:53 remaining. But the Bulldogs wiped out that advantage and managed to score the last eight points of regulation to force the OT.

But in the extra session, Capital found the range from the free throw line, making good on seven of its last eight tries. And Saiz followed up a pair of charity tosses to steal the ball and get fouled again. He converted two more and the lead grew to 10 points with only 13.6 left.

The schools had split the previous two meetings, Capital winning 62-55 at home and losing 73-55 in Albuquerque .

Now it’s on to Manzano (15-10), which also split the two regular season games against the Jags, who lost a tight one, 52-49, at the Monarchs, and won 50-44 at home to force a first place playoff at Capital that the Demons triumphed in.

So prior to the New Mexico Activities Association’s state tournament announcements of the 16 schools in each class, it’s Manzano home and then possibly away at the Demons with the state seedings on the line.

. . . But the 5^th seeded Capital girls weren’t as fortunate in game one of the doubleheader, although they did play well in the 51-48 setback to the 3^rdseeded Bulldogs who had beaten them twice in the regular season. But this contest was much closer than the other two as the Jags finished up at 10-17 while Albuquerque advanced to 11-15.

Up 38-34 in the fourth quarter, Capital saw the lead vanish when the home side came up with seven straight points and outscored the visitors 17-10 in a game that went down to the final buzzer.

The Jags’ Miranda Cortez, a 5-2 junior, scored 14 of her 15 in the second and third quarters that included four 3-pointers. Senior teammate VivikaArmijo-Vigil added 11 points.

Although head coach Darren Casadoswill lose seven seniors, he could return Cortez, 5-9 sophomore Rebecca Sorenson, 6-foot sophomore EthenaSilva, 5-3 junior Stephanie Herrera, 5-11 freshman Yolanda Munoz, 5-4 junior Alyssa Martinez, and 5-7 junior Heaven Arciniega.

. . . With its regular season ending in a surprise 62-52 loss to 3^rd seeded Clayton Wednesday night in the District 7-2A semifinals at Pecos, the overall 3^rd ranked Panthers, the 2^nd seed in the district tournament, will now have to await the NMAA state tournament announcement to see who and where they will play in the opening round.

Now at 19-6 overall, Pecos lost in the state quarterfinals to Texico last season. Now it is in this new district with the Wolverines, Clayton and Santa Rosa , and Texico (21-3) is ranked second behind 22-3 Penasco, and will get a visit from Clayton in Friday’s district tournament final. They have already defeated the Yellow Jackets twice, but the 37-34 loss at Clayton was not decided until the final buzzer.

Meanwhile, Pecos had turned in wins in both previous games against the Yellow Jackets, but this time it lost at home for the second straight time, following up the recent overwhelming regular-season setback to Texico. Clayton (15-10) scored 22 points in the second quarter to take a 36-21 lead at halftime.

The Panthers responded by getting to within 44-42, but the visitors maintained their advantage and Pecos never got closer than four points after that. They had to play with injured senior starting point guard Bethany Martinez sidelined as well as a key reserve.

. . . As for the 2nd-ranked Pecos (22-3) boys in quest of a third straight state title, they will play the winner of the Texico-Santa Rosa semifinal game at home Saturday afternoon, 2 o’clock, in the district tournament final. These are the two schools that lost to the Panthers in back-to-back state finals, the Lions in 2017 and the Wolverines in 2018.

Now the three play in the same district and overall are ranked one, two, three.

. . .  In the 2-4A girl’s semifinal tonight, 2^nd seeded Los Alamos (12-14), ranked 16^th, plays host to 3^rd seeded Espanola Valley (14-10), which is ranked 12^th. The winner heads to top seed Pojoaque Valley (22-4) for Saturday’s district tournament final. The Elkettesare ranked fourth.

. . . In other girl’s play Friday night, 2^ndseeded Santa Fe Indian School heads for top-ranked, first place Robertson (23-1) to play for the 2-3A tournament title.

. . . In tonight’s 2-3A boy’s semifinals, the 3^rd seeded Cardinals (13-13) travel to 2^nd seeded Indian School (16-10), with the winners playing at top seed St. Michael’s Saturday night.

The Horsemen (18-8) edged the visiting Braves in a first place playoff last Saturday, and have swept them and Robertson. St. Michael’s is on top the overall rankings, Indian School is fourth.