SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
With this shortened abbreviated basketball season and no district tournaments, Santa Fe High knew how important Thursday night‘s 53-50 win at crosstown rival Capital was.
Now at 4-1 overall and 3-0 in District 5-5A, the Demons and Jaguars played before a socially-distanced “sellout: turnout of about 350 fans at Edward A. Ortiz Memorial Gymnasium, and the visitors gained the round one while leading for all but 10 seconds. Their defense was stout and forced 18 Capital turnovers while making the key baskets.
Now Santa Fe High has the inside track to a playoff spot in a campaign of only a dozen games. it and Los Lunas are the only unbeaten teams in the district, and the two meet up twice this month. The Jags are 2-2 overall, 2-2 in district, and have lost two-straight heading into games next week versus Albuquerque schools Manzano and Rio Grande.
On offense, it was the Demons’ guards, Crus Martinez and Cody Garcia, and senior forward Jaiden Block who led the way. Block scored eight points and brought down the bulk of the rebounds while also handing out assists. Santa Fe High went from a 14-12 lead after one quarter to a 14-point advantage in the second half.
Capital went more than five minutes without scoring between the end of the opening quarter until midway through portions of the second. It was a contested layup by Block late in the first quarter that snapped a 12-12 tie and sparked a 10-0 run. It wasn’t until Angel Parra scored on a layup with 3:12 left in the half that the Jaguars made the scoreboard.
Capital then cut the deficit to 24-18 at the intermission, but back came the Demons to hold the Jags without a field goal for almost five minutes into the third quarter. An old-fashion three-point play by Block advanced a 34-21 lead to 42-28 at the end of the quarter.
The Jaguars made one more rally after Izayah Serrano came through with a rare four-point play on a baseline 3 and foul shot that trimmed the gap to 44-35 with six minutes to play. Then a 3 from beyond the arch from Parra with 3:17 to go got his team to within 48-44. The home side kept it close until the final buzzer, but was never able to take the lead. A pair of 3s from Serrano got Capital closer then it had been since the start of the second quarter.
