Pecos overpowered in 70-63 loss to Menaul
Mar. 13—ALBUQUERQUE — Sometimes, it just pays to be big.
The Albuquerque Menaul Panthers showed up to The Pit for the Class 2A boys basketball championship game Saturday morning with a lineup that had four players 6-foot-4 or taller. The Pecos Panthers had one player listed at 6-3.
Led by a 19-point, 23-rebound performance by 6-foot-9 senior forward Maximux Mkpa and another 15 points from Brandon Oloumou, fifth-seeded Menaul owerpowered No. 2 Pecos for a 70-63 win.
It was the first state title for the program, and Menaul upended Pecos' dreams of a fifth title in the past six years. Menaul head coach Dan Gayle said what made the journey a little sweeter was beating Pecos, top-seeded Tularosa and
No. 4 Escalante along the way.
"We had a pretty tough road to get here, and all teams played us great," Gayle said. "Yes, we had some athletic advantages in terms of height, but we still got to put the round thing into the circle thing."
Menaul (23-4) did that very well. The team went 23 for 49 from the field, but more important, it knocked down six 3-pointers that were daggers to Pecos' chances of rallying from a 20-10 first-quarter deficit.
Yet, for all the hype about Menaul's size, it was the shortest player on the court — 5-10 Alexandre Rael — who broke the hearts of Pecos' faithful in the final moments.
Pecos furiously rallied from a 57-44 deficit, getting within 61-57 on Aidan Holton's putback with 2:20 left. On the next possession, Pecos junior guard Zachary Fox gambled to double-team Prashant Chouhan on the left wing, leaving Rael wide open in the corner.
Rael listened to the exhortation of his coach earlier in the game, and his friends sitting near his corner of the court, and launched a 3 that hit nothing but net for a 64-57 lead with 1:59 to go.
"All my friends were sitting by that corner, and every time I'd get [the ball], they'd say, 'Rip it,' " Rael said.
"So you're saying those are my assists?" Gayle shot back.
Pecos, meanwhile, kept fighting back and cut the lead to 64-60 when Malik Barrens hit one of two free throws with 59.3 seconds left, setting up the possibility of comeback. But desperation set in, as Pecos missed its last three shots — all from the perimeter.
Pecos head coach Arthur Gonzales said Menaul's length caused headaches for his players and led to a 26-for-71 shooting performance.
"They are long, and they're a lot longer on the court," Gonzales said. "You feel you have that shot, and they're way out there. Maybe it was desperation during that time, but [the Panthers] create that."
Menaul also stuck to its game plan of pounding the ball into the paint, which also led to plenty of fouls by Pecos (24-7). The result was a 30-8 free-throw disparity, with Menaul knocking down 18.
The stops in play seemed to short-circuit Pecos' attempts at runs. Outside of a 10-0 spurt to open the second quarter, which tied the score at 20-all, Pecos never had a sustained spurt.
Menaul, meanwhile, generated a 21-6 run that turned a 28-26 Pecos lead into a 47-34 Menaul lead on Blea's third 3.
"Right when you think you're making a stop, a little change in momentum, things are going our way, they hit the 3s," Gonzales said. "They're crucial."
Pecos was led by Isaiah Sandoval's 17 points, while Holton added 12, Barrens had 11 and Jodaiah Padilla 10. Holton, Barrens and Padilla will be back next year as seniors, as should six other juniors.
Gonzales said the program is at a point where it is reloading more than rebuilding, and it points to how the four-peat from 2017-20 has created a culture that continues to feed hungry, dedicated players into the program to keep Pecos' success going.
"These guys saw the first teams from the sidelines," Gonzales said. "Each and every one of them, their heart is to get that opportunity to do what they did today. Obviously, we came up short, but it definitely helps our program."