Breaking News
Home / News / The Tohatchi girls, from 2A to 3A last year, came away with Saturday night’s 50-38 win over Santa Fe Indian School to claim the championship of the annual Al Armendariz basketball tournament played at Capital High

The Tohatchi girls, from 2A to 3A last year, came away with Saturday night’s 50-38 win over Santa Fe Indian School to claim the championship of the annual Al Armendariz basketball tournament played at Capital High

By Arnie
Arnie Leshin

The Tohatchi girls have not only acquired more experience in 3A since moving up from 2A last year, bur also got a chance to hook up with district rival Crownpoint as they made their way to hoisting the championship trophy of the annual Al Armendariz basketball tournament played at Capital High.

Now 6-1, the Cougars won impressively over Santa Fe Indian School, 50-38, Saturday night in the title game. They employed their 2-3 zone defense to force the 3A Braves into mistakes that slowed down their offense as well as their shot making. The result was the second setback in seven starts for Indian School.
It was only two seasons back that Tohatchi first won the state 2A title and followed it up by losing in the state final, and in last year’s first time in 3A, it put together a 14-14 overall record. Now it returned eight players and might even rank as a threat for 3A state honors.
The Cougars had things pretty much their own way until the Braves made a 21-9 closing run. That made the final score more respectable since they made only 5 of their initial 33 shots and committing 14 turnovers. Meanwhile, Tahatchi combined its offense and defense to force a 41-7 lead heading into the final quarter. 
 
Still, Indian School only trailed 20-13 with three minutes left in the first half, and it might have been closer if the Braves had done better than 3-for-21 shooting from the floor as the intermission neared. Plus, they fell behind and stayed behind after the Cougars quickly went in front 8-0, and Indian School contributed four quick turnovers.  
 
But after the Braves’ Franki Chavez converted 1-of-2 charity tosses late in the second quarter, Tohatchi closed the half with a 6-0 run to push its advantage to 29-13. Hunter Garcia, a 5-foot senior, turned in 10 points to lead Indian School, but 5-8 sophomore teammate, Cameron Connors, was good for only four points after coming in with a 16.7 average.
 
In the clash for third place, host Capital won its fourth in seven starts by handing Crownpoint a 40-32 setback, as the Jaguars got off to a slow start, fell behind early, and then broke a 16-16 tie with 21 points in the third quarter to grab a 32-25 lead that they maintained in dropping Crownpoint to 3-4. 
 
Senior guard Nikki Cole helped the home team with a pair of third quarter 3s and 6-1 junior forward Ethena Silva scored six of her 11 points over those eight minutes. Rebecca Sorensen, a 5-9 junior forward, was top scorer with a dozen points. 
 
Fifth place went to Pecos’ defending state 2A champions in a 43-33 victory over Santa Fe High, with the Panthers winning their fifth in six starts and making good in the fourth quarter with 10 free throws, but overall they were only 19-for 47 from the line, but the Demonettes (3-4) didn’t that much better with only 10-of-24 freebies overall and 2-of-7 in the last quarter.
 
The Panthers were led by junior Trinity Herrera’s 15 points, while junior Alexis Gonzales added 13. 
 
Then there was the seventh place game that brought Cobre a tight 39-38 win over Texas El Paso, with the Indians advancing to 3-5 and the Tigers falling to 4-8. It was the third straight time in this tournament that El Paso lost a third quarter lead. It lead 29-16 at halftime, but scored only six points in the next eight minutes, and Cobre forced a 35-all tie heading into the last quarter.
 
In other girl’s games, West Las Vegas lost at Moriarty, 48-42, Los Alamos won at Artesia, 45-31, Pojoaque Valley hit the road to rout Aztec, 50-24, and Espanola Valley dropped 49-48 contest at Mayfield. 
 
Along with the results of the boys field in the Armendariz tournament, other boys games had host Rio Rancho Cleveland winning its Storm Invite over Albuquerque La Cueva, 76-48, third place going to Roswell in a 70-68 success over Bernalillo, Denver Eaglecrest romping over St. Michael’s, 74-69, for fifth place, and the sixth spot went to Albuquerque Menaul over Piedra Vista, 58-53.  

Check Also

God’s Encouraging Word of the day

“Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31 Since God …