St. Michael's loses in overtime to Robertson, 51-47, as Cardinals have stranglehold on district
Apr. 17—With the finish line to the painfully short 2021 prep basketball season well within sight, the term "must-win" is going to be thrown around a lot in the next two weeks.
The coronavirus pandemic has shortened the regular season to a maximum of 12 games. It has also cut in half preseason practices and, long before that, eliminated the monthslong preseason training programs most teams typically follow.
What's more, the state tournament has been cut in half from 16 teams to eight. Lastly, there are no district tournaments to bolster a team's résumé or sneak into the field with an automatic postseason bid.
It adds up to a lot of must-wins for teams still trying to work their way into shape and develop on-court chemistry.
First up on the must-win tour: The St. Michael's boys basketball team.
Sitting a game behind Robertson in the District 2-3A standings entering Friday's contest at Perez-Shelley Memorial Gymnasium, the Horsemen had to have a win after dropping their previous outing with the Cardinals just 11 days prior.
Thanks to the gutsy efforts of Robertson guards Lubby Marrujo and Matthew Gonzales, the Cardinals (7-0, 5-0) took a stranglehold on the 2-3A race by taking a 51-47 win that basically leaves St. Michael's (4-2, 2-2) in the unenvious position of fighting for one of just three at-large bids for the Class 3A state tournament.
It's the same hole Santa Fe High and Capital find themselves in in Class 5A. Santa Fe High's district title hopes come down to the next 11 days as the Demons have two straight games against unbeaten District 5-5A leader Los Lunas and an April 28 date with Capital. It's entirely likely only one at-large bid (if any at all) will come out of 5-5A.
St. Michael's coach David Rodriguez knows that feeling all too well. After discussing his team's loss Friday, the last thing he said was, "We'll just need to regroup and go for an at-large these next two weeks."
The Horsemen turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and were 10-for-22 from the free-throw line. That includes seven straight misses in the third quarter as Robertson used a 21-2 run in the first half to erase a 13-8 deficit to open a 14-point lead. By pounding the ball inside to Lucas Coriz and Devin Flores, St. Michael's rallied back into the lead in the fourth quarter.
That's when the 1-2 punch of Cardinals guards Gonzales and Marrujo took over. Playing with a surgically repaired broken nose suffered April 7 against West Las Vegas, Marrujo finished with 15 points while struggling to play not only with a mask over his nose and mouth, but a clear plastic shell wrapped around the upper part of his face.
"There were times where he said he couldn't even see," said Robertson coach Manuel Romero. "I mean, what can I say about kids like Lubby and Matthew? They both want the ball in their hands, they both want to put this team on their back when it gets rough."
The 5-foot-7 Gonzales, sporting a mullet that would make singer Billy Ray Cyrus proud, had a game-high 19 points.
He got most of his points either from the free-throw line or on fearless attacks through traffic on penetrating drives down the lane.
Time and again he challenged the Horsemen guards on the perimeter before leaving his feet for twisting shots against the St. Michael's bigs.
"You said it, fearless," Romero said. "He's a leader who's been doing this for me for a long time. When you have a player who wants the ball the way he does, you let him make the plays."
Robertson can nail down the 2-3A title and an automatic bid to the state tournament with a St. Michael's win at West Las Vegas on Wednesday. If not, it can happen next weekend when the Cardinals host their crosstown rivals on April 23.
With state all but a certainty for Robertson, it's as simple as this for the Horsemen: Win out and hope for the best. They have three games remaining, the next two of which are on the road. There was a fourth game scheduled for May 1 at Sandia Prep, but it has been canceled.
Rodriguez said his team is far from out of it, saying Friday's loss came at the expense of missed free throws and turnovers.
He's right. Missed opportunities were costly in what amounted to a must-win scenario.
Then again, this time of year all games are must-win.
GAME NOTESCoriz had a team-high 17 points for St. Michael's. Flores added 11 and Derek Martinez seven. ... The game was tied at 31 after three quarters. There were five lead changes in the final seven minutes of regulation. Flores tied the game at 43 with 14 seconds left on a jumper in the lane, but Robertson missed three shots in the final 5 seconds that would have won it. Cody Rivera missed an open 3-pointer in the corner, followed by a missed fadeaway jumper by Mateo Contreras and missed put-back at the buzzer by Bodie Schlinger.
