It’s a team sport, so to say one person won the game is usually not the case, but Santa Fe Indian School’s Leighton Galvan came close to that lofty praise. The senior poured in 3 three-pointers in the first quarter and was nine of ten from the free throw line to help his Brave team defeat Raton 46 – 40 in the first round of 16 for 3A boys on Saturday, March 5 in Raton.
The Tigers were seeded # 6 in the tournament and had defeated SFIS twice before in District 2AAA action earlier, so the Tigers had the advantage coming into the game, but that advantage was quickly erased by Galvan who scored 13 of the 15 first quarter points and staked his team to a five point advantage at the end of the first period.
Raton’s Matt Quartieri made the first basket of the game and it turned out to be the only lead the Tigers would have until 4:45 left in the game when Lalo Tafoya sank a three to give them a short-lived 36-35 lead, which was erased seconds later on a Galvan putback. Tafoya scored all 10 of the Tigers fourth quarter points including 2 three-pointers. The Tigers also hurt their cause as they couldn’t get the ball to go down in the paint or at the free throw line as they only converted on three of nine attempts.
