Prep basketball: 24 games coming on Quarterfinals Wednesday

Mar. 8—It is Wednesday, which means it's the busiest day of the week for the New Mexico high school basketball state championships (officially known as the Nusenda Credit Union boys and girls basketball state championships).

The Pit, Rio Rancho Events Center and Bernalillo High School are all host sites for games that began at 8 a.m. this morning and will continue deep into the evening. And there will be 24 games in all — quarterfinals in each of the five boys divisions and also in Class 1A girls.

The Journal's James Yodice is on site at the Pit to cover 5A boys basketball today and monitor all other things prep basketball. His Twitter feed is below.

And of course, the NMAA is providing updates via its Twitter account as well:

Meanwhile, check back here during the day as results come in.

CLASS 5A BOYS

No. 5 ORGAN MOUNTAIN 59, No. 4 WEST MESA 55: The Knights (25-4) knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the first 82 seconds and held the lead the entire way as they beat the Mustangs (22-9) in the Class 5A boys quarterfinals at the Pit on Wednesday morning.

Organ Mountain, the only one of the eight quarterfinalists to come from outside the Albuquerque metro area, will play No. 1 Volcano Vista or No. 9 Atrisco Heritage in Thursday's semifinals.

Brandon Kehres had 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Knights, who led by as many as 13 points in the first half and led by as few as one point on two occasions in the second half.

Elijah Brody led the Mustangs with 15 points and 10 boards.

Organ Mountain shot 50% from the field (18 of 36), while West Mesa shot just 31.1% (14 of 45).

— James Yodice

CLASS 4A BOYS

No. 6 HOPE CHRISTIAN 59, No. 3 ST. PIUS 45: At the Pit, Noah Perry scored 20 points, including six from the foul line in the fourth quarter to lead the Huskies (20-10) to the semifinals.

Jett Wycoff added 16 and five rebounds for Hope, and the two combined to go 5-if-7 on 3-pointers.

Gene Trujillo 12 points and seven rebounds for the Sartans (19-10).

"I'm kind of surprised they came out and played us in a 1-3-1 zone a lot," Huskies coach Jim Murphy said. "They are usually playing man a lot. Luckily you have to be prepared for anything you face so I was shocked that they came out that way."

It took Hope a bit to adjust, but then the Huskies' first four buckets were 3-pointers.

"At first I thought we came out a little hesitant, but I told them they're giving us open shots, you've got to take them," Murphy said.

This was the rubber match after the teams traded one-point decisions during the season, but Sartans coach Ryan Myers said some of the individual matchups were unfavorable.

"We wanted to use our length," he said. "We had a couple of tough matchups man to man, so we thought we'd come out zone, make them hit some outside shots, which they did a good job of early."

The third quarter proved to be the turning point as the Sartans went scoreless for almost six minutes and Hope put together a 10-0 run to turn a 29-27 lead into a 39-27 advantage.

"We adjusted a little bit at halftime, our defensive plan, and it seemed to slow them down," Murphy said. "St. Pius is a great team. In the state tournament, anything can happen, The guys performed well. Noah had a great game, and I think (Hope's) Nate Saavedra did a great job plugging up the lane."

— Glen Rosales

No. 6 HOPE CHRISTIAN 59, No. 3 ST. PIUS 45

HOPE CHRISTIAN (20-10): Jett Wycoff 7-10 0-0 16, Noah Perry 4-7 9-11 20, Nathan Saavedra 1-2 0-1 2, Christian Schermerhorn 4-6 2-4 10, Xavier Otero 0-3 0-0 0, Jack Rupp 0-0 1-2 1, Caden Williams 0-3 1-2 1, Braydon Giron 4-5 0-0 9, Nico Gutierrez 0-0 0-0 0, Ian Koenigsberg 0-0 0-0 0, Max Montoya 0-0 0-0 0, Derek Martinez 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-36 13-20 59

ST. PIUS (19-10): Jason Montoya 4-10 0-0 11, Nicholas Rodriguez 0-2 0-0 2, Chris Coash 1-4 0-0 2, Brian Kalb 4-13 0-0 9, Gene Trujillo 4-4 4-5 12, Ethan Valencia 2-5 1-2 5, Carson McConnell 1-2 1-2 0-0 2, Cade Freeze 0-5 0-0 0, Alejandro Sapien 0-0 0-0 0, Aiden Thomas 2-2 0-0 4, Johnathan Pham 0-0 0-0 0, Mason Montoya 0-0 0-0 0, Isaiah Jeantete 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-47 5-8 45

Hope Christian 14 9 16 20- -59

St. Pius 13 8 8 16- -45

3-point FGs: HC 6-13 (Perry 3-4, Wycoff 2-3, Giron 1-2, Otero 0-2, Williams 0-2); SP 4-19 (Montoya 3-7, Kalb 1-3, Freeze 0-4, Valencia 0-2, Rodriguez 0-2, Coash 0-1). Rebounds: HC 21 (Wycoff 5); SP 28 (Kalb 7, Trujillo 7); Assists: HC 14 (Otero 4); SP 12 (Rodriguez 4). Steals: HC 10 (Perry 2); SP 3 (Valencia 2). Turnovers: HC 8; SP 14. Total fouls: HC 15; SP 19. Fouled out: none.

CLASS 3A BOYS

No. 3 Robertson 67, No. 11 Ruidoso 44: At the Rio Rancho Events Center, Kenneth Montoya scored a team-high 15 points, and Robertson (24-5) set the tone with a torrid-shooting first quarter to defeat Ruidoso (16-10).

Montoya had 10 of his points in the first quarter, when Robertson shot 60 percent from the field, including four of its five 3-point attempts, and all five of its free throws. After eight minutes, Ruidoso trailed 27-10.

Bodie Schlinger added 12 points and 14 rebounds for Robertson. Tao Barnes led Ruidoso with 17 points.

CLASS 2A BOYS

No. 2 ACADEMY FOR T&C 39, No. 7JAL 38: At Rio Rancho, Jordan Apodaca scored 12 points and Julian Bernardino 11 for the Academy (25-6), which won despite going without a basket the last six minutes. Jacob Lujan scored 11 points and Gabriel Juarez added 10 points and 12 rebounds for Jal (19-10).

CLASS 1A BOYS

No. 13 CLOVIS CHRISTIAN 61, No. 5 CLIFF 45: At Bernalillo, Noah Gershon and Carter Teune each scored 17 points for Clovis Christian, which has defeated the No. 4 and now the No. 5 seeds in barging its way into the semifinal round.

Jaden Martinez and OB Blanco added 12 points each for Clovis Christian (20-10), which shot a cool 57 percent (20-of-35) from the field.

Coy Judd scored 13 points and Jaiden Clifton 12 for Cliff (21-7), which shot a lot of 3s and missed most (6-of-34).

Box Score #13 Clovis Christian at #5 Cliff 06 March by Albuquerque Journal on Scribd

CLASS 1A GIRLS

No. 6 ANIMAS 47, No. 3 CLIFF 39: At Bernalillo High, Azure Green scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for Animas (21-8), which rallied from a nine-point deficit late in the third quarter to victory. Jordynn Clifton's 11 points led Cliff (24-4). Both teams committed 24 turnovers, Animas shot 29 percent from the field and Cliff 26 percent.

Box Score #6 Animas at #3 Cliff 07 March by Albuquerque Journal on Scribd

2023 Nusenda Credit Union Boys Basketball State Championships Class 5A

2023 Nusenda Credit Union Boys Basketball State Championships Class 4A

2023 Nusenda Credit Union Boys Basketball State Championships Class 3A

2023 Nusenda Credit Union Boys Basketball State Championships Class 2A

2023 Nusenda Credit Union Boys Basketball State Championships Class A

2023 Nusenda Credit Union Girls Basketball State Championships Class 5A

2023 Nusenda Credit Union Girls Basketball State Championships Class 4A