By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Oh what a game it was in Cimarron Saturday evening March 4, as the Des Moines Demons made the trip to Ram country for the fifth meeting between these two teams this season and a berth in the NM State quarterfinals at stake. With the Rams coming in to the game with a 3-1 winning record against the Demons and the #7 seed in the opening round of 16, the Demons ignored the past and the higher seeding and led most of the way for a 71 – 53 win and a trip to Bernalillo.
Out for revenge the Demons came to play and as Coach Ben Doherty noted before the game he was going to try and switch it up a bit playing both a zone and man to man game. The Rams controlled the jump ball, but from then on it was pretty much a Demon game as Des Moines took the lead and simply ran away with the game in the first quarter ending it with a 24-14 score.
But don’t count the Rams out as their defense stiffened up and held the Demons to only 10 points in the second quarter. The Rams played a mostly clean game not allowing the Demons to go to the free throw line once in the second. As the clocked ticked down Des Moines lead by seven, The Rams inbound pass goes to Austin Jaramillo who flies down the court and launches a 3-point shot, just before the buzzer sounds, from the far left wing it hits the backboard and falls through the net to bring the halftime score 34-30.
The third quarter was a tight game as Cimarron managed to take a short lead but fall as Des Moines worked the ball and made the shots with Des Moines outscoring Cimarron by only one in the third 16-15.
It came down to the fourth quarter and the free throw line where Calder Green made it look easy as he sunk eight of eight free throws four of which were technical fouls that were called on Cimarron for excessive celebration on both calls. Green also topped the scoring with six 3-point shots where he totaled out at 30 points in the game. As the clock passed two minutes it became a clock control game with Des Moines slowing things down then attacking the lane after spreading out the Cimarron defense to expand their lead and finish it off with a 71-53 score.
#10 seed Des Moines will now travel to Bernalillo for a quarter-final game with #2 seed Ft Sumner/House Wednesday afternoon.
Des Moines 24 10 16 22 71
Cimarron 14 16 15 8 53
Des Moines High Point
Caleb Sumpter 14. 4 of 5 free throws
Calder Green 30 8 of 8 free throws and 6 3-pointers
Noah Johnson 16 4 3-pointers
Free throws 12 of 13 attempts
Cimarron High Point
Logan Sahd 19 9 of 10 free throws
Demetrius Jackson 12. 2 of 2 free throws
Austin Jaramillo 11 3 3-pointers
Free throws 15 of 19 attempts
