ST. MICHAEL’S BOYS BASKTBALL

Long time St. Michael’s assistant boys basketball coach Gerard Garcia said the Horsemen players “were down” after learning of head coach Dave Rodriguez’ absence in a closed door meeting Saturday morning.

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Their scheduled Friday night home game against District 2-3A opponent Robertson had been rescheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, and said Garcia, they were caught off guard by the situation.

Regardless, there was a game to be played, and so the contest against the district-leading, ranked Cardinals took the floor at Perez-Shelley gymnasium.

The bad news was that Robertson, 10-6 overall and 2-0 in district, appeared to be on its way to a blowout victory. And then there was other poor unwelcoming news, for late in the third quarter and the Horsemen down 40-22, starting guard Derek Martinez picked up a pair of technical fouls and was ejected.

Did his teammates respond? Sure did in what has been a long season for their program. It began with a pre-season injury early in the football season to starting quarterback Lucas Coriz that also sidelined him from basketball, where he was a key forward.

It continued with a number of other key injuries and off-court issues ranging from grades to illnesses and bouts with COVID-19. The team didn’t get its initial win until the first week of January and is in jeopardy of missing the state tournament for the first time in two decades.

Despite all this, Coach Garcia said the players showed their resiliency in mounting a comeback, one that saw them surge on a 28-6 run and gain the lead on a 3-point play by senior Devin Flores in the last four minutes of regulation.

“We were down by six at halftime,” Garcia said, “and I saw the pissed-off look9- in their faces. There was two ways this was going to go down, either we were going to win this thing or, you know, it’s not going to happen and we’ll lose big.”

Surprise, these Horsemen came through in flying colors. They forced the game into overtime and outscored the Cardinals 9-5 for a well-deserved 61-57 triumph that put their overall record at 4-14 and 2-2 in district. Now even with a losing overall mark, win district and they will qualify for state. So this was a wake-up call without Rodriguez on the bench.

Without Martinez it became a total team effort, a huge recovery from an early deficit that increased to 18 points.

The Cardinals led 14-9 after one quarter and 26-20 at intermission, and after three quarters were ahead 44-34.

Rodriguez’ absence is under investigation and was reported to the New Mexico Activities Association, but the organization associate

director Dusty Young said his group is not actually involved. All maters, he said, are being handled internally by the school.

Said St. Michael’s president Tom Coughlan: “Yes, I can confirm Coach Rodriguez is on administrative leave.”

Others involved have been instructed not to discuss the matter publicly.

But one thing is certain, the Horsemen will take the hard-fought win over rival Robertson.

Said Rodriguez: “I am well, I am not sick and I did not take a leave of absence. We’ll see what comes next.”