Basketball Game Preview: Santa Fe Demons vs. Manzano Monarchs

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Previous Games

02/12/25 - Home	66-41 W
01/23/25 - Away	55-33 W
02/17/24 - Away	63-61 W
01/30/24 - Home	59-53 W
02/20/23 - Home	56-46 W
+ 5 more games

Santa Fe is a perfect 10-0 against Manzano since April of 2021 and they'll have a chance to extend that dominance on Tuesday. The Santa Fe Demons will host the Manzano Monarchs at 7:00 p.m. Santa Fe knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past eight games -- so hopefully Manzano likes a good challenge.

Santa Fe is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of New Mexico's top teams: Sandia, who was ranked third at the time (Santa Fe was ranked tenth). Santa Fe lost to Sandia at home by a 80-65 margin on Friday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Wednesday (60), the Demons still had to take the loss.

Meanwhile, Manzano lost 70-50 to La Cueva on Friday. The Monarchs haven't had much luck with the Bears recently, as the team has come up short the last four times they've met.

Santa Fe will need to focus on slowing down Estevan Gonzalez, one of several Manzano players who made an impact when they last played. He posted 12 points along with five assists and five steals. Gonzalez has become a key player for Manzano: the team is 3-1 when he posts at least three steals, but 4-18 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Kai Youngberg, who went 5-for-11 to rack up 18 points.

Manzano's loss dropped their record down to 7-19. As for Santa Fe, their defeat dropped their record down to 18-8.

Santa Fe took their win against Manzano when the teams last played two weeks ago by a conclusive 66-41. Will Santa Fe repeat their success, or does Manzano have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.