The Santa Fe Indian School Braves started the District 2AAA game against Raton hot on offense and stifling on defense as they went off to a 22-8 first quarter lead and then never looked back enroute to a 61-36 win on Friday night at Raton Tiger Gym. Their veteran offense clicked with seniors James Bridges and Ethan Roanhorse trading first quarter baskets and their trap defense forcing several turnovers and rushed shots for Raton.
SFIS earned its third district win with the victory while Raton fell to 1-3. The only blemish on the Braves district mark is an 11 point loss to undefeated St. Mikes.
Raton was minus several key players because of illness or injury and, though falling behind early, played the Braves evenly through the second and third quarters, making several runs to trim the lead, but couldn’t sustain any rally.
The tigers were lead by Senior Aden Vanderwater and Freshman Matthew Quartieri with 8 apiece. Senior Jose Archuleta and Freshman Dylan Quartieri each had six, while Junior Ben Kamp chipped in five.
The game had very few whistles with each team visiting the free-throw line only six times.
Next up for Raton is another District contest against Las Vegas Robertson on Wednesday, Feb 6. The game will be broadcast on KRTN FM 93.9 and streamed on Network1Sports.com
