A look back at a turbulent prep basketball season

May 10—Adios, prep basketball.

Like the sports that came before and those still continuing this spring, the abbreviated hoops campaign will be remembered as a year of asterisks, oddities and water-cooler moments that we'll talk about for decades to come.

It was a season without holiday tournaments, jump balls, extended nondistrict roadies or fans sitting behind the benches. It was a year of masks and pods, temperature checks and coin flips to determine who got the ball first.

With soccer and football seasons encroaching two weeks into a 12-game hoops season, it put a strain on teams whose athletes were entrenched in fall sports. Those athletes were then thrown headfirst into the meat grinder of district schedules with no time to acclimate to their new surroundings.

Fittingly, it ended with a COVID-19-safe practice that prohibited overnight stays for teams traveling to Albuquerque for the state tournament. That made for a logistical nightmare for teams such as the boys from Artesia, Jal and Las Cruces, and girls from Navajo Prep, Lordsburg and Hobbs, all of whom traveled several hours on game day just to play in their respective state finals.

Of those, Hobbs, Cruces and Artesia played teams from the Albuquerque area with players who had the benefit of sleeping in their own beds and driving less than 30 minutes to the arena.

With all due respect, 2021 prep hoops, we're glad it's over. Let's hope for some normalcy next year.

----Could it be that Jose "Majic" Medina's championship aspirations will always cross the path of a Native American school? Medina guided sixth-seeded Robertson to the Class 3A championship game Friday, losing to Navajo Prep. It was the third championship appearance for the longtime coach, but there has been a familiar pattern to it.

When he led the Cardinals to the 2019 championship, they beat Santa Fe Indian School. When he was at West Las Vegas in 2010, the Lady Dons went to overtime before losing to the Lady Braves in the 3A title game.

With a host of eighth graders maturing for the 2021-22 season and forward Jayden Jenkins returning for her senior year, there is no doubt Robertson will be contender. As for who might be a challenger ...

----The Española Valley Sundevils benefited greatly from the addition of juniors Jordan Torres and Cameron Conners as they reached the 4A finals for the first time in program history.

The pair transferred from Santa Fe Indian School, which did not have an athletic season because of the coronavirus pandemic. They played key roles off the bench for Española but will most likely return to SFIS for their senior years.

With those two cogs possibly returning — along with the usual upcoming talent that appears at the boarding school — expect the Lady Braves to be one of those challengers for the 3A title next season.

----Saturday's victory in the Class 4A boys championship game was a first for Del Norte. The Knights' win over Artesia kept alive a streak of at least one Albuquerque team winning a boys title, a streak that now sits at 20. Not since the 2001 season have we had a non-Burque team hoist a blue trophy.

Saturday's game also had another first: The officiating crew of Bobby Trujillo, Erin Trujillo and Mark Martinez was the first in state history to have a married couple — namely Erin and Bobby — work the same championship game.

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Volcano Vista girls basketball coach Lisa Villareal, who coached at Española Valley and Capital, exacted some revenge Saturday by beating Hobbs, 52-49, in overtime for the Class 5A championship. When Natalia Chavez nailed a 45-foot buzzer beater for the win, it made up for the 58-43 loss to the Lady Eagles in March of 2020.

The win makes Villareal 4-1 in championship game appearances — all with Volcano Vista. She also happens to be the program's only head basketball coach.

----The Class 2A girls basketball championship between Pecos and Lordsburg was full of oddities — the chief one being the Mavericks had a chance to win in the final minute, despite 51 turnovers — but another one stood out for a sport that has become so reliant on 3-pointers.

The Panthers did not make a single 3-pointer. They went 0-for-14 from distance, but head coach Bryan Gonzales liked it that way.

Besides, their aggressive nature led to 35 trips to the free-throw line, where the Panthers made 25 tries.

"I'm not one for 3s," Gonzales said after Pecos' 61-55 win. "Sometimes, I have to tell them to stop with the 3s. Threes can be nice because they're daggers and they can kinda push your lead. With the way these girls play, it's like, 'Let's attack the basket.' "

Contrast that with Española, which hoisted 33 3-pointers out of 55 shots overall in a 63-51 loss to Gallup in the 4A championship. In the second half alone, the Sundevils took 19 3-pointers among their 25 shots in the second half.

----Capital's girls may have missed the playoffs, but their third-place finish leaving them two games above .500 in District 5-5A was a sign things are turning around on Santa Fe's south side.

Rebecca Sorensen was one of the team's top offensive threats. On Sunday, she formally committed to play next season at Northern New Mexico College. A 5-foot-10 senior, she averaged 11.6 points and 9.4 rebounds a game for the Jaguars.