By Eric Butler
MaxPreps.com
Farmington High's Kevin Holman, the school's boys basketball coach, turned out to be the only representative for the Scorpions Class 4A-5A North/South all-star game on Thursday (July 31).
While he might have liked a little more company for the event from Farmington, Holman did say there was an upside. For instance, he couldn't be accused of playing favorites.
Truth be told, though, it seemed that Holman had plenty of new favorites after his North squad beat the South 117-101 at The Pit in Albuquerque.
"Marcus Williams (of Rio Rancho) is just an incredible athlete. Matt Billups (of Los Lunas) is a super player and Patrick Miller (of Valley) surprised me with how good he was," Holman said. "And then Mike Torrez from Espanola just had an outstanding week.
"Of course, there was Chris Newsome (from Rio Rancho) and Chris Johnsen," said Holman, who gave additional praise to Johansen. "Now I know why St. Pius wins three state championships. He shows up and there's only one way – he goes hard in practice, no matter what; he works his tail off."
Williams scored 25 to lead the North while Billups added 19.
For the South, Hobbs' Allen Tate paced the team with 29 points while Jaden Isler from Clovis added 17.
Isler played his first game since he survived a cardiac arrest while watching a softball game at the end of March. His father, J.D. Isler served as the South coach.
"It was special. That was probably the most special thing for me to coach those guys one more time in The Pit and they all did a good job," J.D. Isler said. "It was really special for me to do that – and even more so with Jaden."
The last time both of the Islers were at the University of New Mexico arena was when Clovis was nipped by Hobbs in the Class 5A state championship game four months ago.
"I think, obviously, they kind of remembered the disappointment," said J.D. Isler of the Clovis players – his son, Bryce Hill and Layne Strebeck – that joined him on the South squad. "But I think they were excited to play in The Pit again and they all got along really well.
"It was interesting to see how the Hobbs and Clovis players were going to get along, but they really got along well and it was neat to watch," he added.
The Class 1A-2A boys North/South contest was staged earlier in the night and the North won that one as well by a 65-61 count.
Dulce's Anastacio Valdez led the North with 13 points while Elida's Wesley Gilmore headed the South scorers with 15.
Like the Islers in the big school game, father was coaching son for the South in the first contest.
Texico coach Richard Luscombe was the South 1A-2A coach and was joined on the bench by his son Courtland and fellow Wolverines Daniel Schueler and Casey Crist. All were key players when Texico won the 2A state championship in March on the same floor.
"It was a good week and a good way for us to go out," Richard Luscombe said. "Like I told them, we got the one in here that really mattered."
The North led throughout the game but, late in the contest, Courtland Luscombe was fouled while attempting a trey. With 32 seconds left, he hit two of three free throw attempts to cut the lead back to one again.
"Then we lost a guy on transition defense. They got a basket and then got a steal and another basket," Richard Luscombe said.
"It was kind of a hard deal because everyone that was out there was kind of a playmaker on their own team," he added. "They all wanted to be one and there were spots in there when we needed a passer instead."
