5A girls: Back where we started with Sandia and Hobbs on top
Mar. 13—Open ... and now shut.
From Nov. 23 to now, this Class 5A girls basketball season has first and foremost been about the Sandia Matadors and the Hobbs Eagles.
They opened the season against one another on that pre-Thanksgiving Saturday at Sandia, and they will close the season against one another this Saturday afternoon at the Pit.
No. 1 Hobbs and No. 2 Sandia took different routes to semifinal victories on Thursday at the Pit, but the end result was similar to most of their games. The Matadors beat La Cueva by 29, the Eagles whipped Carlsbad by 33.
Now all that is left is for them to square off at 2 p.m. Saturday.
No. 2 SANDIA 64, No. 6 LA CUEVA 35: The Bears overcame one sluggish start. They could not handle another one in the same game.
The Matadors (29-1), as they have done several times to La Cueva this season, opened the game with a huge run. The Bears counterpunched this time, but the Matadors authored another blazing start to the second half, going on an 18-2 run, and that was plenty to send the Bears to the deck and to send Sandia back to the final where it will try to defend its 2024 crown.
"So happy that we're in the championship," Sandia senior guard Sydney Benally said following a 24-point, nine-rebound performance.
Sandia outscored La Cueva 38-15 after halftime. And this scene looked all too familiar to La Cueva.
Sandia started one District 2-5A matchup against La Cueva with a 16-2 burst. Then, in the 2-5A tournament final two weeks ago, the Matadors scored the first 20 before La Cueva got on the board.
Thursday, Sandia was out to a 14-2 lead after back-to-back 3-pointers by Benally. Chloe Brown also drained a pair of 3s in that quick start.
But La Cueva rebounded impressively. With junior guard Jordyn Dyer leading the way, the Bears not only erased that 12-point deficit but inched in front 18-15 with 5 1/2 minutes to go in the first half.
That was about the last positive thing that happened to La Cueva.
Benally, who earlier in the morning had been chosen as the New Mexico Gatorade Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, once again drained back-to-back 3s. Her sister Kaiyah, connected from distance, too, and Sandia led 24-18.
It was 26-20 at halftime.
And then things spiraled quickly for the sixth-seeded Bears (22-8), who were turned over six times in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the third quarter.
"It's the same mantra," Sandia coach Lee Kettig said. Moving Kaiyah Benally over to defend Dyer was the one key change in defense coming out of halftime, he said. "Once we start playing defense, the run is gonna come. And it did."
Sandia scored the first 14 points of the third quarter. Hope Giddings opened with a layup. A turnover led to a Kaiyah Benally basket. Another turnover led to a Sydney Benally layup. Yet another turnover led to a Sydney Benally 3-pointer. By then it was 35-20 less than two minutes into the second half.
"We just love giving them pressure and making them make fast decisions," Sydney Benally said. She knocked down another 3 at the 5:15 mark for a 40-20 bulge.
La Cueva committed 10 turnovers in the pivotal third quarter, which were turned into 16 points by Sandia.
"We knew they wanted it just as bad as we did," Sandia senior wing Hope Giddings said. She scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds Thursday. "We had more experience. We've been here before, so we knew we just needed to take care of business."
Benally, meanwhile, told the Journal that it is possible she may not play for BYU after all as previously planned. The Cougars are searching for a new coach and Benally said she wants to wait to see who is hired.
No. 1 HOBBS 71, No. 12 CARLSBAD 38: These were not necessarily the pedal-to-the-metal Eagles of the first round and quarterfinals, but they nevertheless rolled into the final with a steady show of their dominance as they ended the Cavegirls' magical postseason run after previous upsets of Albuquerque High and Farmington.
Hobbs never trailed. It wasn't until the second quarter that the Eagles (29-1) began to pull away from district rival Carlsbad (20-11).
A 9-0 run, including a 3-pointer from Kacelynn Muniez, made it 29-20, and Hobbs led by 15 at halftime (32-17). Hobbs' veteran lineup put together a 10-1 run during the middle portion of the third quarter, and a 45-23 lead rendered the rest of the game anticlimactic.
Bhret Clay scored a team-best 18 points for Hobbs. Brynn Hargrove added 13 points. The Eagles outrebounded the Cavegirls 39-24, and Hobbs turned the ball over only seven times. Hobbs had an impressive 23 assists on 26 baskets.
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