By Eric Butler
MaxPreps.com
Basketball: Rio Rancho Boys, Mayfield Girls Among Winners
Before New Mexico's prep basketball squads launch into district schedules to determine positioning for postseason state tournaments, many over the last couple of weeks have tested themselves in a variety of hoops invitationals.
One of the big winners were the Rio Rancho boys in Class 5A, who ascended to No. 1 in the coaches poll after winning the tough Clovis Holiday Classic.
Rio Rancho won the Milk Cow Classic in Clovis by first beating defending Class 3A state champ St. Michael's, 70-58, Thursday. St. Mike's wouldn't lose again in the tournament after the opening day.
The Rams then beat Manzano, last year's Class 5A state champion, by a 58-56 score in the semifinals. Manzano, top-ranked in the 5A preseason poll, has suffered only two losses this season - both to Rio Rancho.
Then, to cap it all off, the Rams beat host Clovis in a 97-95 overtime thriller on Saturday to hand the Wildcats their only defeat of the season.
"That's probably the most exciting high school basketball game I've been around as a player and a coach," said Rio Rancho coach Brian Smith after the championship game win. "It was fun."
After Clovis - thanks to a pair of free throws with six seconds left - sent the game into overtime, the 'Cats pleased a large home crowd by going ahead 88-85 in the extra session.
But Rio Rancho scored five of the next seven points, all via Marcus Williams, to tie the game.
With the game deadlocked again at 95-95, it was Williams' turn one more time. As the overtime clock ticked out, Williams grabbed his own missed shot and, falling to his left, put in the rebound for the Rams' win.
"I think this is the first time I've been on a team that beat Clovis, in Clovis, in anything," said Williams, who finished with 28 points. "We read something in the paper that said they'd see if we could run with them. I guess we could."
Also in Clovis, an eight-team girls tournament played over the same weekend was won by the host Wildcats - who beat La Cueva, 55-48, in the championship.
Clovis, led by Ebony Bunton's 25 points, rallied from a 37-31 early fourth-quarter deficit by scoring 11 of the game's next 13 points and took the lead with 4:52 left on a shot by Bunton.
"That third quarter, you always want to set the tempo. But they set the tempo for us," Clovis coach Miles Watters said. "We were scoring on them, but they were scoring too. We finally shut them down defensively and got our running game going."
In Las Cruces, boys and girls tournaments were also played simultaneously over the holiday break.
Eldorado's boys squad made the trip from Albuquerque and won the Hoop-La championship by beating Las Cruces High, 49-46, in the title game at the Pan American Center. Although the game was tied when it happened, the Eagles earned the victory over the Bulldawgs via a last-second shot - when Eldorado's Pete Gabaldon connected on a 3-pointer with only a second left in regulation.
Gabaldon led the Eagles with 13 points while Las Cruces, which finished second in the tourney for a third time, got 14 points apiece from Gordo Castillo and James Clifford.
In the girls tourney at Las Cruces, Mayfield cruised to a championship game win by beating El Paso Chapin 52-37 as New Mexico State-bound Madison Spence collected 28 of her team's points.
Another big school holiday invitational tradition continued in Hobbs, where the Eagles boys won their own event. In the championship, Jeff Taylor scored 34 points and Hobbs beat San Antonio Lanier 97-75 to capture the crown.
Tournament action continued last weekend and two Class 3A powers clashed for the first time this season. Hope Christian and St. Michael's, who are expected to be the chief contenders for the boys 3A state title, met up in the championship of the St. Michael's Invitational.
Although the Horsemen had the home court advantage on Saturday (Jan. 6), Hope Christian - which moved up from Class 2A only this year - emerged with a 55-51 victory. Huskies' senior Zach Spangler led his team to the win by scoring 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds while Hope teammate Xavier Blount and St. Michael's Jordan Romero had 18 each to pace all players.
The small schools also got in on the tournament act as the EPAC (Eastern Plains Athletic Conference) tourney, one of the oldest and largest invitationals in the state, saw Elida win both the boys and girls championships.
While the Elida girls easily won the title game of the 10-team event, by beating Melrose 37-25, the Tigers boys made a little history by emerging victorious over Texico in the finale.
"First ever. Us and House have never won one," said Elida coach Darrell Chenault after the 58-50 win over the host Wolverines. "The kids were just really confident. They believed in themselves."
"We've just kind of been doing good the whole season," said Caleb Widner, Elida's lone senior. "We just had to be ready for it tonight."