By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Raton Tigers hosted their final regular season game against Santa Fe Prep Saturday, February 23, and marked the win column in all three games.
The C-Team game got off to a quick start with Raton posting the first bucket and simply holding the Griffins to only two points. The Tigers kept the pressure on the Griffins with the help of eight graders Anderson and Noah Weese as the two tall boys made the rebounds needed to keep Prep out the basket. Once the final buzzer sounded Raton showed a convincing win 51-33.
The JV game saw Raton take off struggle a bit as the Griffins kept up a defensive pressure but Raton didn’t help their cause only going two of seven at the free throw line the first quarter. In the second quarter the Griffins didn’t fair much better only four of 11 at the free throw line. However Raton outscored the Griffins in the first three quarters with Santa Fe bringing on the heat and besting Raton 12-9 in the fourth.
The Varsity game was a stark contrast to the other two games as the Griffins bested Raton by one in the first quarter. It was the second and third quarters of play that put Raton in Control as they held Santa Fe to only four points in the second quarter with strong defensive play and good rebounding to keep Santa Fe out of the basket.
The Referees were letting the boys play so neither team went to the free throw line very often. Steals and rebounds kept both teams running with Raton managing to drop in 22 points in the third period of play. Matthew Quartieri however was a factor to deal with in the fourth where he posted nine of his 21 points. At the final buzzer it was Raton 65-43.
As long as the standings in District 2AAA stay the same #5 seed Raton will travel to #4 seed West Las Vegas while #3 seed Robertson will host #6 seed Santa Fe Prep on Tuesday to start off district play. Both games will be in Las Vegas at 7:00 p.m. This year the district has a playoff bracket rather than the bottom seed going to the next higher seed and that winner moving on.
C-Team Game
Santa Fe 2 10 10 12 33
Raton 17 14 12 8 51
JV Game
Santa Fe 6 11 7 12 36
Raton 12 11 17 9 49
Varsity Game
Santa Fe 15 4 12 12 43
Raton 14 12 22 15 65
Santa Fe High Point
Dillon Abeyta 14
Sam Cooper 11 2 of 4 free throws
Free throws 3 of 8 attempts
Raton High Point
Matthew Quartieri 21 2 of 6 free throws
Richie Acevedo 11
Aden Vanderwater 10 2 of 2 free throws
Free throws 6 of 10 attempts
