Pecos bests Horsemen at Stu Clark Invitational
Dec. 28—LAS VEGAS, N.M. — The St. Michael's boys basketball team has carried a certain philosophy with regards to its nondistrict schedule this season.
Wanted: Schools with larger enrollments.
When that's not possible, then find someone who can give the Horsemen a serious test, beef up their strength of schedule and make them better come playoff time in March.
They found just that in Tuesday's opening round of the Stu Clark Invitational at New Mexico Highlands University's John A. Wilson Complex. After playing eight straight games against Class 5A and 4A programs (winning five), St. Michael's was paired with the state's most dominant 2A club of the last decade.
Pecos, which has reached the state semifinals seven straight years and captured the 2A championship four times with five appearances in the finals, was first up for the Horsemen in Las Vegas. The Panthers did what the Panthers do, winning 65-57 to reach Wednesday's Stu Clark semifinals.
For the Horsemen, it leaves them in the consolation round with potential matchups against two more 4A schools.
"We tried making this year's schedule as difficult as we could, and I think it shows," said St. Michael's coach Gerard Garcia. "Next year, we want it even tougher. These games will only make us better when things really count later on."
Pecos used an 11-0 run in the first half to build a 28-20 halftime lead, then pushed the margin to 10 early in the third quarter as the Panthers' usual blend of aggressive defense and attacking offense created a back-and-forth whistle-fest that produced a combined 56 fouls and 60 free throw attempts.
The tenor of the game shifted in the second half as fouls, turnovers and missed opportunities led to each team wasting a double digit lead. The Horsemen had three players foul out and had a fourth, sophomore sensation Sabi Rios, go down with a badly sprained right ankle that leaves him questionable for the remainder of the tournament.
St. Michael's senior Adam Montoya said his club expected a few calls not to go its way. It happens to every team in nearly every game, he said.
"It's hard; we knew we had to fight through it and we did through the first three quarters but towards the end it just fell apart," Montoya said.
The Horsemen were called for 30 fouls, sending Pecos to the free throw line 33 times — 19 of them in the fourth quarter. Panthers senior guard Jodaiah Padilla scored a team-high 21 points, doing the vast majority of his damage from the line in the final quarter. He hit all 10 of his attempts from the charity stripe, scoring 16 points in the quarter.
Gabe Montoya's bucket with 34 seconds left snapped a 57-all tie for Pecos and was part of an 11-0 run to end the game over the final 76 seconds.
Garcia said there were two plays that were particularly costly for the Horsemen. The first came with 2:30 left in the game when Rios rolled his right ankle. He limped to the sideline where a trainer from NMHU taped his ankle.
Nursing a five-point lead at the time, St. Michael's was left vulnerable without its defensive stopper.
"Sabi had 24 points, and it felt like he had just as many steals," Garcia said. "You take him out of the game and we don't have the answer he usually gives us on defense."
The other moment came with 28 seconds left and Pecos leading by two points. Gabriel Montoya had just missed a free throw, and the Horsemen's Montoya was driving the ball downcourt along the far sideline. Officials called him for an offensive foul, his fifth, saying Montoya pushed off as he was defended by the Panthers' Justin Muller.
"Calls like that just kind of kill the game for you, you know?" Rios said.
"I mean, games like this just get us ready for what we have coming up," Montoya said. "We'll be back in Vegas, in district games against other teams and we'll have to deal with the crowds, refs, coaches, everything. If you let it, it will help."
As the final seconds ticked away and the outcome was no longer in doubt, Garcia tried his best to draw a technical during a timeout with two seconds left. This time, the officials didn't make the call as they let the first-year Horsemen head coach vent his frustrations.
When it was over and the dust had settled, Garcia said as rough as things got Tuesday, they only drove home the point that quality competition like Pecos only serves a higher purpose.
"We could play lesser teams, some smaller schools and get a bunch of easy wins but, you know, that's not us," Garcia said. "We want those challenging games. We want to play up, we want to play Santa Fe High and Capital. I don't care who it is. If they're willing to give us a place on their schedule, I say let's play them. Records right now really don't matter."
NOTES
Pecos (8-1) scored 31 points in the third quarter and held the Horsemen (5-4) to 20. ... The Panthers have won 89.1 percent of their games since the start of the 2016-17 season and have an .873 winning percentage (179-26) dating to the 2015-16 season. No other team in the Santa Fe area comes even close to those numbers. ... The Horsemen had three players (Adam Montoya, Lucas Gurule and Taven Lozada) foul out while two others (Marco C de Baca and Reed Bass) each had four fouls at game's end. ... Pecos had Zach Fox foul out and four others (Joshua Gonzales, Malik Barrens, Aiden Holton and Padilla) all finish with four fouls.
