Scratch the anticipated boys 2A clash matching the state’s lone boys undefeated Magdalena at the streaking 3-time state-champion Pecos, twice the weather has postponed it, and now the two can only meet next in the state tournament

The boys basketball team from Magdalena High won’t be seen in Pecos or the areas around it after getting snowed away for the second time. Twice, the state’s lone boy’s undefeated team planned to hit the road and head up I-25 north to Pecos and decide the No. 1 2A team before the state tournament even takes the court.

But, as it was Jan. 16, Tuesday’s trip was canceled in the wee small hours of the morning that day.

“We were on the phone with them about 7:30,” said Panthers’ athletic coordinator Mick Flores, Jr., and it wasn’t good news. The snow that fell the night before, they said, would make for cautious driving, even in the 10 miles to the I-25 entrance in Socorro, so that was it, no game and no rescheduling it again.”

And that’s that, with the regular-season winding down, it’s too late to squeeze another game into both schedules. And so it could now turn into a much anticipated state tournament game between the No. 1 and 2 teams, the unbeaten Steers and the Panthers who have won the last three state championships and are now 104-8 overall  after coming off an 83-7 record of the last three seasons.

At least both teams will know enough about each other, even though it will be from practices leading up to last month’s encounter, and again this past week where either time would have packed the Louis Sanchez gymnasium.

Not many games were played Tuesday, and it must have been frozen in the Belen High gym if its boy’s basketball team could score only 16 points while the victorious visitors Los Lunas could score only 37.

Most of the postponed games were being played Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Hopefully, the winter weather will cooperate.

As for Magdalena and Pecos, school was out for both Tuesday. The Steers next take the court again at Albuquerque Menaul Thursday. The Panthers are at 7-2A rival Clayton in  a Thursday nightdoubleheader, with the girls playing in the 5:30 opener, and with the Pecos girls coming off their initial state title. Saturday, Santa Rosa visits the Panthers in another district contest, and that. too, is a boy-girl doubleheader that tips off at 3:30.

Also on Thursday, in 5-5A Albuquerque Manzano plays at Santa Fe High and Albuquerque Sandia visits Capital. Then there’s a key 2-3A clash when St. Michael’s heads for Robertson.

In girls 5-5A, Santa Fe High plays host to Manzano Friday night, Capital travels to Sandia, and Robertson is at St. Michael’s.

Saturday, in boys action, the Jaguars play at Albuquerque High and the Demons at Sandia, plus in 2-3A, Santa Fe Indian School and Santa Fe Prep hit the road, the Braves up to Raton and the Griffins down I-25 to West Las Vagas.

In a girls doubleheader the same day at Christian Life in Santa Fe, it’s Academy of Technology and The Classics girls playing Tierra Encantada at 1:30,p.m., and the boys to follow around 4 o’clock.