The Far Northeast corner of New Mexico is sometimes forgotten by the rest of the state, but not when it comes to high school basketball.
Northeast NM rattled the cage again this past weekend as five of the area teams, Des Moines, Cimarron and Roy/Mosquero girls, Springer and defending state champion Maxwell boys, won their first round games and will advance to the quarterfinals of the Class A NM State Basketball Championships this Wed., March 7 at Bernalillo.
The girls action on Friday, March 2 had five of the District 5A teams playing in the first round with #4 seed Des Moines methodically dismantling Clovis Christian for a 68 – 35 win. Des Moines was led by Angie Lopez with 16, Grace Hall with 15, Makenna Hittson with 11 and Natashia McDonald with 10.
#8 Cimarron led by five at the end of the first quarter, but kept on the offensive as senior Reina Arguello poured in 30, Angel Gonzales contributed 16, and Samantha Ogata had 12 en route to a 73 – 45 win.
The upset win of Class A Girls in the first round was turned in by #11 Roy/Mosquero who clamped down on #6 Animas standout forward Tierney Washburn, while Riley Clavel led all scorers with 19 and Bailey Horn put in 16 for a low-scoring 40-37 victory.
District 5A had four representatives in the first round and the only one to not advance was the #10 Springer Lady Red Devils. They gave #7 Grady all they could handle and lead by one at the end of the first quarter, were down by eight at the half, down by five at the end of the third quarter before running into foul trouble and falling 40 – 33.
The Maxwell Bears boys are defending State Class A Champions and began defense of their crown with a 76 -50 win over Walatowa Charter. Cody Pino and Preston Pino kept the Cougars within five at the end of the first period, but Maxwell had too much firepower in Kolton Riggs who ended the game with 33 and senior Carl Gonzales who found his shot in the second half for 13 points.
#6 Springer hosted #11 Animas and the Red Devils couldn’t shake the Panthers until the fourth period. Trailing by one into the final eight minutes, Springer outscored their opponents by eight to earn a 53 – 46 win with senior Bryan Romero leading all scorers with 21.
#11 Cimarron was hosted by #7 Floyd and was within striking distance the whole game but wound up on the short end of a 51 – 44 score.
Five of the eight quarterfinal games on Wednesday, March 7 will have District 5A competitors and it begins at 8 am at Bernalillo with Des Moines Lady Demons pitted against #5 Coronado.
Then at 11:30 Cimarron is matched against the #1 seed in the tournament Elida.
The 3 pm contest will have Roy/Mosquero looking to continue the Cinderella story going up against #3 Quemado.
The boys action will have #2 Maxwell facing #7 Floyd at 4:45 pm and Springer will end the quarterfinal round at 8:15 against #3 Reserve.
All games mentioned will be broadcast on KRTN FM 93.9 and streamed on Network1Sports.com
