The Sandia Matadors put another one in the bag on Saturday to keep their perfect season alive. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Las Cruces 75-41 at home. Fans of Sandia have seen this all before: every one of the games they've played this season ended as a blowout.
Sydney Benally was her usual excellent self, shooting 4-for-7 from deep and dropping a double-double on 25 points and ten rebounds. That makes it three consecutive games in which she has scored at least 25% of Sandia's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Hope Giddings, who scored 15 points.
Las Cruces lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Danae Pacheco, who scored ten points. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Pacheco has scored all season. Mercedes Willis was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on ten points and ten rebounds.
Las Cruces struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only four offensive rebounds. They were crushed by their opponents in that department as Sandia pulled down 17 offensive rebounds.
Sandia pushed their record up to 4-0 with that victory, which was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season. As for Las Cruces, they now have a losing record at 1-2.
Sandia will head out on the road to face off against Albuquerque at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully Albuquerque focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 24 on Saturday. As for Las Cruces, they will look to defend their home court on Thursday against Farmington at 3:00 p.m. Farmington presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Las Cruces in New Mexico (Farmington is ranked second, while Las Cruces is ranked 63rd).
