Northeastern NM basketball teams went three-for-three in quarterfinal action Wednesday, March 8th at the NM State Basketball Championships. The Lady Roy/Mosquero Longhorns beat Coronado 65-56, the Maxwell Bears boys defeated Floyd 62-37 and Springer Red Devils came back from fourth quarter and overtime deficits to notch a thrilling 89-87 win over Hondo Valley as all earned victories to advance to the state semifinals at Bernalillo High School.
The three victories were all done in different fashion as Maxwell started their game very cold from the floor against Floyd, trailing by five after the first quarter. But then, Carl Gonzales hit two 3s, and Kolton Riggs scored 12 in the quarter to stake the Bears to a 31-18 lead at the half which was never seriously challenged. Riggs had 19, including 11 of 14 from the foul line, Aaron Salazar had 16 including five three-pointers, Jeremy Archuleta and Gonzalez each had 11, Andrew Archuleta had 3 and Devon Cruz 2 points for the Bears who will play Melrose on Thursday March 9 for the right to play for the Championship on Saturday morning in The Pit.
Springer’s win over Hondo Valley was a gut-checking roller coaster for the Red Devils as they trailed by one after the first period, then had the lead 35-28 at halftime only to see it disappear in the third period. Trailing by as many as 11 with just under three minutes to go in the game, Springer would not cave in and with seniors Isaiah Garcia, Estevan Romero and Damien Blaubach leading the way, came back in the fourth period, but still trailed by two. With just seconds remaining it was freshman Gabriel Garcia who turned back defeat as time was running out in regulation, he heaved a desperation three pointer up that was off the mark, but was fouled and went to the line with .3 seconds on the clock. Garcia stepped up and made two of the three to send the game into overtime.
In the extra period, it again looked like Springer was going to fall, but sheer determination and key buckets by Bryan Romero gave senior Jacob Quintana the chance to put back his own missed shot in the final seconds to secure the amazing win.
Springer will play Quemado at 3 pm on Thursday after the #1 seed just escaped an upset by #9 seed San Jon 63-62.
The Lady Roy/Mosquero Longhorns had a relatively easy time in disposing Coronado. The Harding County team never trailed and led by three after one, six at half, ten at the end of the third and the final margin of nine.
Eighth grader Riley Clavel had 23, Mya Vigil had 17, Bailey Smith had 10, Kassandra Velarde had 9, Sherrie Ray 3, Kandall Smith 2 and McKenzie Lightfoot had 1 as everyone that suited up scored for coach Bob Libby.
# 3 seed Roy/Mosquero Ladies will play #2 Melrose on Thursday at 1:15 pm for a chance to be in the Friday morning final at the Pit at 11:30.
KRTN is broadcasting all three of the games on 93.9 FM and streaming on Network1Sports.com
