Uptempo, physical Demons take on Sundevils for Capital City title

Dec. 4—Española Valley had to deal with pressure Friday, but it was simply the appetizer for the main course.

The Sundevils withstood to constant pressure of an undersized Capital squad to advance to the Bobby Rodriguez Capital City Tournament championship game. However, it will have to deal with the constant pressure from the host Demons of Santa Fe High.

The difference is that Santa Fe High has better size, better speed and just as many shooters. The Demons continued their high-flying ways in the final game of Friday's session, forcing 29 Taos turnovers as they rolled to a 70-40 win in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium.

Santa Fe High will entertain Española, which had its hands full before beating the Jaguars, 49-46, in the first boys semifinal of the evening. Sundevils head coach Gabe Martinez knows that his team will have to do better at handling pressure — both the physical kind the Demons will exert and the mental kind that comes with playing quality opponents.

"It's gonna be a challenge," Martinez said.

For Santa Fe High, the 3-0 start to the season was almost the perfect elixir to help establish its identity as an intense, up-tempo squad that thrives off turnovers in transition and a swarming defense that has a new skill it is using — strength.

Santa Fe High head coach Zack Cole said the players hit the weight room in the spring after losing to eventual Class 5A champion Rio Rancho Cleveland in the quarterfinals. The way the Storm manhandled Santa Fe High sent a clear message to the players to get stronger in order to compete at the 5A level.

They feel they met the challenge.

"We know now that we can cover a post, we can cover a guard or anyone on the court," Demons senior wing Diego Ortiz said.

While the Demons don't have a player taller than 6-foot-3, they have shown they can defend taller, more physical players with a combination of speed and newfound strength. Taos' frontline duo of 6-7 Daemon Ely and 6-5 Elden Torres struggled to get clean looks at the basket as the Demons were quick to double team them in the post.

"It's communication," junior guard Santiago Montoya said. "We work on this in practice on rotating, on switching. We put a lot of work on the defensive end."

However, the best way to slow the two tall players was to ensure the guards never got a chance to get them the ball. Santa Fe High collected 16 steals, and the Tigers committed 29 turnovers. The turning point came during a nine-possession stretch in which Taos committed eight turnovers and missed its lone shot. The Demons produced a 13-0 run that erased an early 7-4 deficit and handed them a 17-7 lead on Elijah Apodaca's transition layup with 1:23 left.

The Tigers cut the lead to 17-8 on Isiah Jeantete's free throw 16 seconds later, but that was as close as they got the rest of the game.

Montoya, meanwhile, exploded for six points in the opening quarter and finished with 13. Eight players scored for Santa Fe High, with only one collecting less than seven points.

Another impressive quality Santa Fe High showed was unselfishness, as it recorded 22 assists on 28 baskets. Cole said the squad set a goal of 20 assists, but he was equally happy to see the kinds of shots the Demons took, too.

They did hit seven 3-pointers, but they also eschewed some decent looks to find a better shot by moving the ball around. Cole said there were layups on back cuts as defenses overplayed shooters to open up those opportunities.

"They are a little bit more selective with their shots," Cole said. "The 3s we did take, they were obvious ones to take. They were within the rhythm and the flow to where they didn't have to rush their shots."

Meanwhile, Española (4-0) found itself in a battle with the smaller Jaguars, who overcame a horrific 4-for-31 shooting performance in the opening half to cut a 20-9 deficit late in the second quarter to 47-46 on Anthony Alvez's free throw with 2:01 left in the game.

Capital (3-1) used its full-court press to force the Sundevils into bad decisions, whether they were turnovers (there were 23) or poor-quality shots. At one point, Martinez expressed exasperation when Jayden Martinez ignored an open lane to the basket to pull up for a wing 3 with less than 3 minutes left that missed and gave Capital life.

"That's the shot we're gonna take?" the coach said.

Meanwhile, Capital improved its shooting, knocking down 13 of 31 attempts in the second half. However, the Jaguars missed four of their last five shots before Marin Rodriguez secured the win with a steal in the final seconds.

Consolation semifinals

Santa Fe Indian School 44, St. Michael's 35

The Horsemen played strong defense, as the Braves managed just 12 points in the first half. However, that all changed in the second half as SFIS (3-2) used a 16-7 run in the third quarter to turn a 16-12 deficit into a 28-23 advantage it never lost.

The Braves rode the coattails of post Leighton Galvin, who scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half. Twelve of them came in the third quarter. Marcos Gonzales led St. Michael's (0-3) with 10 points.

The Braves will play Los Alamos for fifth place at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, while St. Michael's takes on Valencia at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

Los Alamos 57, Valencia 38

The Hilltoppers built a brick wall around the Jaguars' basket in the third quarter, allowing just a Mariano Perea bucket. A 15-2 scoring run in the quarter ensued and Los Alamos built a 43-24 lead to advance to the consolation championship.

Gavin Coy led the Hilltoppers (2-1) with 13 points, while Niko Garcia added 11. Ali Abdullah paced Valencia (1-3) with 10 points.