St. Michael’s Wednesday night 49-47 triumph

Talking about hanging around after a dismal start, that’s where the 3rd-seeded St. Michael’s boys basketball team is now following Wednesday night‘s 49-47 cliff-hanger over visiting 6th-seeded West Las Vegas in the District 2-3A quarterfinals.

Once at 0-10 and 2-12 overall, the surging Horsemen remain at Perez-Shelley memorial gymnasium for tonight’s semifinals versus 5th-seeded Santa Fe Indian School. The winner gets first place Robertson on the road in Friday night‘s championship.

And St. Michael’s is now at 11-13 and the only team to defeat the Cardinals, dropped the Dons to 10-15 and with a second loss in the last three nights at the Horsemen, who had lost the seeding tiebreaker to 2nd-seeded Raton via the point differential.

With the two teams totally familiar with each other, this was a tough tussle that was back-and-fourth in a 43-43 deadlock before St. Michael’s could go on a 7-0 run that included senior Devin Flores tossing in a baseline jumper with 4.4 left to go up 48-47, and a foul shot from Flores upped the lead at the final buzzer.

Also in 2-3A, visiting Indian School meanwhile, advanced to 9-14 overall after soaring away to a resounding 24-7 advantage in the second quarter over the Griffins, who twice went on a surge to trim the gap led by senior Finn Coles, who had the team-high 18 points and fell to 14-11 with a berth in the state tournament no doubt insured. Owen Pecos tallied 18 for the Prep.