By Eric Butler
MaxPreps.com
Basketball: Eagles Girls Shock Defending Champs
Sometimes all you can do is sigh and refer to a tried-and-true sports adage.
That's probably how St. Pius girls basketball coach Phil Griego felt after his Sartans lost to Belen on Saturday (Jan. 20). Not only have the victorious Eagles been a traditional also-ran in the sport, Belen only days before had fallen itself to Del Norte - a squad picked for the very bottom of District 5-4A.
"Anybody's good enough to beat anybody on any given night," said Griego, after the requisite sigh, analyzing what went wrong in a 55-52 loss to Belen.
St. Pius (10-5) got 14 points from Alex Membreno and nine more from Agnes Gallegos, but Griego said that Belen appeared to have a couple of intangibles that helped the Eagles to victory.
"They played harder than us. They just seemed to have more energy than we did," he said.
It was the first time that Griego faced his older brother Danny as opposing head coaches. Danny Griego was hired to lead Belen over the past summer.
"It was more tense. I knew what his team was going to do, he knew what my team was going to do," Phil Griego said.
"I think there were a couple of factors there. We're defending state champions and everybody's coming after us," he added. "The sooner we understand that, the better we're going to be. I'm sure we took them for granted."
In other girls basketball action, Class 4A's top-ranked team nearly pulled off consecutive night wins over two of 5A's best programs in recent years. Roswell got 19 points from senior Joanna Gutierrez to upend Rio Rancho 41-36 on Friday (Jan. 19) to kick off a four-team tournament in Clovis.
"It's good experience. It'll help us a lot against 4A teams later in this season," Gutierrez said.
With the Coyotes holding a 27-25 lead early in the fourth period, Gutierrez bombed in a pair of three-pointers on consecutive possessions to kick off a 10-1 run for Roswell. The Coyotes' senior hit five treys on the night as Rio Rancho, led by Megan Muniz' 19 points, concentrated defensively on stopping Roswell Samantha Matta - with a box-and-one.
"They left her open, to worry about Sam," Roswell coach Joe Carpenter said. "But we've got some kids who can play."
The next night, however, Roswell (15-3) fell to Clovis (12-5) by a 45-41 count as Wildcats' junior Ebony Bunton sunk a critical 3-pointer to break a tie with 40 seconds remaining.
Bunton led all players with 24 points while teammate Tori Northcutt added 10 for Clovis. Matta collected 16 points to pace Roswell.
"They're very talented. They beat Mayfield, they beat Hobbs, so they're no doubt a talented team," said Clovis coach Miles Watters of the Coyotes.
Another girls hoops team that played two games in two days was Cibola, although the Cougars had to do some traveling to get it done.
After falling to Gallup on Friday night, Cibola (11-5) regrouped to beat La Cueva 64-44 the next day.
At La Cueva, the Cougars bombed in 10 three-point shots and got 17 points from Skye Barnett to subdue the Bears. Larissa Reinhardt also tallied 12 and Taylor Williams added 10 in the Cibola victory.
Cibola coach Lori Stephenson admitted she was a little surprised that the Cougars bounced back so quickly after suffering the loss to Gallup the night before - and making a longer-than-usual bus ride back to Albuquerque.
"We left Gallup at 8:30 and we got back at midnight. The roads were kind of icy and slick all the way back, so it was kind of a long road trip," Stephenson said. "I don't know what happened between one night and the next. I think our captains probably had something to do with it, because they all gathered for breakfast at 10 a.m. the next morning and the team captains talked to them a little bit."
In boys basketball play, Class 5A's top-ranked Rio Rancho Rams won a pair of back-to-back home contests on Friday and Saturday. Although the last win was an 87-55 blowout victory over West Mesa, Rio Rancho (16-1) did have to earn a 97-91 win over fourth-ranked Clovis on Friday.
The Rams-Wildcats tilt was a rematch of an overtime victory for Rio Rancho at the Clovis holiday tournament three weeks earlier.
Rio Rancho, led by Daniel Steffensen's 20 points against Clovis, has now won 15-straight games after losing to Hope Christian - Class 3A's top-ranked squad - in the opening round of the Academy Invitational back in early December.