Capital boys basketball still in the hunt for the District 5-5A title

While Santa Fe High and Los Lunas were trading first place, Capital minded its own business by making it a 3-team run with Friday night‘s important 62-48 District 5-5A win over the Tigers.

So after the Demons hit the road to roll past Albuquerque Manzano, 74-40, and even their district record at 6-2 and again create a tie with Los Lunas, the Jaguars advanced to 5-2 and a half-game behind as the teams clash for a berth (or two) in the state tournament.

“We were behind by three after one quarter and by 10 at halftime,” said head Capital coach Ben Gomez, “and when we finally took the lead in the third quarter, we just battled back-and-forth and played well enough to happily come away with the win. Now we’re right in the mix with three games to go.”

Also at 5-2 overall, the Jaguars head across town to take on Santa Fe High Wednesday night at Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium. After that, Capital, which received a team-high 17 points from senior guard Angel Darra, travels to Manzano (2-6, 2-6) Friday, and then plays at Albuquerque High (3-3, 3-3)  on the first of May. Los Lunas is 7-2 overall and is home to winless Albuquerque Rio Grande (0-7, 0-7) on Wednesday, and is then home to Albuquerque High on Friday. Its regular-season finale is a non-district visit from Valencia (3-7).

Santa Fe High tries for a sweep of Capital Wednesday after winning the previous game 53-50 at the Jaguars. Then the Demons should have no problem at home Friday versus Rio Grande.

In District 2-3A Friday night at Santa Fe Prep, St. Michael’s up its overall record to 6-2 and its district mark is 5-2 following the 60-47 triumph over the Griffins, who dropped to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in district. Undefeated Robertson (10-0, 7-0) has already clinched first place in district and the Horsemen have hopes for a state tournament berth if they can dispose of visiting Raton (3-7, 1-5) Wednesday in the final regular-season contest.

As for the Cardinals who swept St. Michael’s, they now look for a high seed, probably a No. 1, after turning back crosstown rival West Las Vegas, 63-55 Friday night.