By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
It was a great start in state tournament action for Northeastern New Mexico teams as four of five First Round Contestants in Class A will advance to the next round quarter finals to be held Wednesday March 11, 2020 in Bernalillo.
The season for the Cimarron Lady Rams and the Raton Tigers ended in the First Round as the 14-seed Raton Tigers travelled to Albuquerque where they were defeated by 3-seed Bosque 69-28. The 9-seed Lady Rams traveled to 8-seed Tatum and put up a good fight only to have their season end with a 69-43 loss.
Class 1A is where the area teams make their mark with three of the six boys teams from district 5A not only were invited to the dance but came out on top advancing to the second round of play. The girls sent two teams to the tourney with 5-seed Roy/Mosquero besting 12-seed Animas 49-35 to move on to the quarter finals on Wednesday. The Lady Blue will play 4-seed Pine Hill Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on 93.9 KRTN FM.
Class 2A saw the 11-seed Clayton YellowJackettes upset 6-seed Texico with a 41-37 win to advance in the tourney. The class A Cinderella team is the 13-seed Cimarron Rams, who traveled down the road to take on 4-seed Evangel Christian in a barn burner of a game that saw the two teams tied at half 17-17. The Rams were victorious in the end by a four point margin 56-52.
Maxwell and Springer both hosted games Saturday and easily defeated their respective opponents. 2-seed Maxwell hosted the 15-seed New Mexico School for the Deaf and saw a tie game at nine after the first quarter of play but Maxwell finally found their rhythm and won the game 82-48. Maxwell’s Kaden Riggs was the top scorer with 23 and three of four free throws, Wesley Jeffery ended the game with 21 including five 3-pointers.while Kolten Riggs ended the game with 14 and two of two free throws.
#5-seed Springer toppled 12-seed Hondo Valley with a 80-61 score. The Red Devils capitalized on three technical fouls called on the Eagles to pull awayleading by ten after the first period and by 20 at the half. Springer’s Gabe Garcia netted 18, Owen Burton and Jose Urquijo each added 15, Wade Burton chipped in 13, with Diego Maestes getting 9, Jeremiah Apodaca scoring 7 and both Chase Casias and Dom Tafoya tallying two apiece.
The brackets will have familiar opponents facing each other as Springer will meet Cimarron Wednesday night at 8:15 p.m. while Maxwell will meet 7-seed Elida Wednesday afternoon at 1:15 p.m. with both games played at Bernalillo High School and both broadcast on 93.9 KRTN FM
Class 1A Boys, First round of 16
#13-Cimarron 56, #4-Evangel Christian 52
#7-Elida 61, #10- Logan 41
#6-Fort Sumner 61, #11-Mountainair 40
#2-Maxwell 82, #15-NMSD 48
#1-Melrose 37, #16-Dora 27
#9-Quemado 55, # 8-San Jon/Grady 51
#5-Springer 80, #12-Hondo 61
#3-Tatum 78, #14-Jemez Valley 40
Class 1A Girls, First round of 16
11-Clovis Christian 26, 6-Gateway Christian 25
3-Fort Sumner 38, 14-Mountainair 24
1-Logan 63, 16-Dora 20
2-Melrose 53, 15-Cliff 17
5-Mosquero/Roy 49, 12-Animas 35
4-Pine Hill 57, 13-Hondo 36
8-Tatum 69, 9-Cimarron 43
7-Tohajilee 52, 10-Quemado 41
