St. Michael’s boys continue their surge

St. Michael’s split a District 2-3A basketball doubleheader with West Las Vegas Wednesday night, and in the same district, Santa Fe Prep won a nail-biter at Santa Fe Indian School.

First, the Horsemen boys. From 0-10, they are now paving their way to a state tournament berth after hitting the road and disposing of West Las Vegas, 63-48. With head coach Dave Rodriguez on administrative leave, long-time assistant Gerald Garcia has filled in.

And Garcia didn’t take long to provide confidence and teamwork, for in his first game on the sidelines after informing the players that morning the stunning news regarding their head coach, St. Michael’s faced first place Robertson at Perez-Shelley gymnasium and after trailing 40-22 in the third quarter, it rallied to celebrate an overtime win.

That put the Horsemen’s overall record at 3-10, and they have now upped it to 8-13 overall and 5-3 in district.

Once again, St. Michael’s senior Devin Flores led the way with 19 points, Adrian Montoya added 17 and senior Diego Armendariz tossed in 14 as the Dons dropped to 10-13 overall and 1-7 in district.

Then there was the Lady Horsemen in yet another tight game versus visiting West Las Vegas that resulted in a 42-32 setback. Under first-year head coach Sonya Ruiz, wife of head baseball coach Augustin Ruiz, St. Michael’s is now 8-16 overall and 2-5 in district.

The Lady Horsemen have had numerous droughts this season, and in this one made only four field goals in the second half, and were outscored 12-6 in the fourth quarter following a 18-18 deadlock at the intermission. Junior point guard Lauryn Pecos tallied the team-high 10 points for the home side, while the Dons upped their record to 9-12 overall and 3-4 in district.

The girls are home to Indian School Friday, the boys are at the Braves Saturday. The Dons have their final regular-season contest at Robertson Friday.

In the tight tussle between the Griffins and Braves, Prep finally came away with a 48-47 triumph behind 15 points from Finn Cole and is now 14-9 overall and 5-4 in district as Malachi Prevatt added 10 points. It was a game-winning basket from Mitchell Grover via an assist from Prevatt with 26 seconds remaining that held up.

Prep turned in 25 points over the first three quarters and 23 over the last eight minutes. Still, it took a closing 18-4 burst that sealed the hard-fought victory.

For Indian School, it had the game-high of 24 points from Leighton Galvan as its overall mark became 8-13 and it was its eighth loss in nine district starts.

The Griffins play their regular-season finale at Raton Saturday. At the Tigers Wednesday, they were routed 72-47 by Robertson. The Cardinals are now 16-6 overall and 7-1 in district, that lone loss against St. Michael’s.