Boys roundup: Grady, Floyd, Texico advance

VAUGHN — Behind a balanced effort, the Grady Bronchos pulled off an upset in the 8-9 road game, winning 54-43 at Vaughn.

Ivan Valdez scored 15 to lead three in double figures for Grady (17-12), which moves on to a 1:15 p.m. Wednesday quarterfinal against top-seeded Melrose at Bernalillo High School.

“We turned up our pressure,” Grady coach Jonathan Langan said. “We did a good job of trapping in the corners and rotating to their paths. That led to a lot of turnovers and we were able to capitalize.”

Another key, Langan said, was getting scoring for Chisum Rush (14) and Lucas Whitehead (13). In a previous loss to Vaughn, the two combined for 11 points.

Safe to say, it gets harder on Wednesday for Grady.

“You’ve got to pick your poison,” Langan said of Melrose. “Outside sides are generally harder to hit than inside shots, so we want them to shoot the ball from the outside. We want to keep the ball out of Jasso’s and DeVaney’s hands, and hope their shooters have a horrible game.”

Floyd 55, Cimarron 44 — Senior leadership stepped up for the Floyd Broncos in Saturday’s win over Cimarron. The Broncos offense scored 33 points in the second half, thanks to contributions from Adrian Borrego and Patrick Terry.

“Really, our seniors stepped up,” Broncos coach Steve Foust explained. “Borrego started making more shots, and he worked hard on the offensive end. Seventeen of his 21 points came in the second half — he really picked up the load. Patrick Terry (meanwhile) made four key free throws for us in the final two minutes.”

Floyd (14-10), the No. 7-seed in 1A, trailed by two points to the No. 10 Rams (15-14) at half. However, the Broncos scored 13 and 20 points in the third and fourth quarters, respectively. Not only did Borrego score 21 points, but Terry added 11 of his own.

Now, however, comes an even bigger challenge. Saturday’s win advances Floyd to Wednesday afternoon’s 1A quarterfinal at Bernalillo High School against No. 2 Maxwell. “Fortunately, we’ve seen them at state the last two years,” Foust said.

“(Unfortunately) they got the best of us both times. They’re a really good team, and they’re the defending state champs. They defend well, they pressure well and they shoot well — they’ve got some shooters. So, we’re gonna have to play a great defensive game.”

Gateway Christian 46, Dora 44 — Dora’s season came to an abrupt and disappointing end on Saturday night, as the boys followed the Dora girls’ lead from Friday night by losing a double-digit halftime lead.

The No. 9 Coyotes carried an 11-point advantage into the second half of their Class 2A game at No. 8 Gateway Christian, only to see that erased, as the Warriors got a buzzer-beater to escape with a 46-44 victory.

Dora (17-12) held Gateway (21-8) to just 15 points at half. However, the Warriors flipped a switch and scored 31 second-half points. Wes Tipton, who finished with 11 points on the night, made a last second shot to advance his Warriors to Wednesday’s 2A quarterfinal against No. 1 Magdalena.

Tipton was one of two Warriors in double figures, led by Jaydon Stephens’ 22-point effort. As for the Coyotes, Slade Hamann had 14 points and Xavier Gramzow had 12.

Texico 73, Monte Del Sol 18 — In Saturday’s other 1-16 game involving local teams, it went pretty much as expected with Texico improving to 27-0.

Texico, which led 47-5 at the half, moves on to an 8 a.m. Wednesday Class 3A quarterfinal at the Santa Ana Star Center against Dexter, an 80-45 winner over Santa Fe Prep.

“I thought we played with quite a bit of energy and gave kids some valuable time to get that depth,” Texico coach Ty Thatcher said. “We kind of got caught last year with some foul trouble, so experience was good to get tonight. Any time you’re playing for elimination, it’s good to come out and play well. I thought they did a good job in the first half.”

Nathan Phipps led the Wolverines with 15 points, while Dalton Thatcher and Luke Phipps each scored 11.

Quemado 65, Elida 40 — The 13th-seeded Tigers’ season ended at 11-17 by fourth-seeded Quemado. No further information was available as of late Saturday.