Capital led until the final minutes against an Espanola Valley

The undersized Capital boys basketball team gave tall and taller Espanola Valley a tough time before falling short, 45-39, in Saturday night‘s championship game of the annual Al Armendariz tournament played at the Jaguars’ Edward A. Ortiz court.

For the Sundevils, now 8-1 after a stunning 46-25 loss to host Santa Fe High in the finals of the previous week’s annual Bobby Rodriguez Capital City, it took a late run to get past Capital, which dropped to 5-3.

There was 2:39 left and Espanola holding on to a 39-37 lead that followed a pair of free throws by the Jags’ Anthony Alvez to tie the score at 37-all. But when the Sundevils applied the pressure, they outscored Capital, 6-2, in the the remaining time.

Before that, the Jaguars were stayed in front until Marquez Martinez tossed in a 3-pointer for Espanola to tie the score at 35-35 with 4:34 of the fourth quarter. Soon after, the Sundevils went up 37-35 on a drive to the basket by Ricky Padilla for for their first lead.

But the key to this game was Espanola shutting off the Jaguars’ outside shooting by forcing them further back, this after Capital’s aggressive defense had the Sundevils shooting a dismal 4-for-20 from the field, and it found the range for four 3-pointers. The Jags were on top 22-16 at halftime.

But when Capital went ice cold with 3-for-20 shooting that included 1-for-14 attempts in the second half and Espanola made 12-of-23, it came down to the stretch run and the Sundevils held on with pressure defense and a late scoring run.

In the contest for third place, Pecos handily turned back Pojoaque Valley, 66-47, to win its fourth in five games and send the Elks to 3-4. The Panthers were ahead 39-24 at halftime.

Fifth place went to Grants (4-2) in a close 55-52 win over Kirtland Central, with Colton Moore leading the Pirates with the game-high 20 points after leading 37-26, at the half.

Seventh place belonged to Tohatchi over Aztec, 61-47, when the Cougars led  37-27 and maintained it to even its mark at 4-4.

In the girls field, it was Gallup topping Hobbs, 49-44, for the championship and upping its record to 9-1 behind a game-high 22 points from Michaela McCurtin, with 10 of her points coming in the fourth quarter to break a 32-all deadlock. Hobbs fell to 3-5.

In the third place game, Pecos’ record evened up at 3-3 following a 59-25 shellacking from Navajo Prep, which is now 6-2. The Panthers scored only nine points in the final two quarters to fall behind 50-19.

Fifth place went to Santa Fe Indian School as it won for the ninth time in 10 starts by outplaying Espanola Valley, 40-22, and dropping the Sundevils to 1-6. In the fourth quarter the Braves put the game out of reach by going on a 16-3 run. Senior Cameron Connors tossed in the game-high 13 points for Indian School.

Host Capital was in the contest for seventh place and came away with a 43-36 triumph over West Las Vegas to win for the second time in six starts. The Jaguars built a 35-25 lead after three quarters, stayed on top, and picked up 10 points from Annalise Leos while the Dons went down to their sixth setback in nine games.