Melrose pulls away in second half against Grady

BERNALILLO — A popular adage in high school basketball is that it’s tough to beat a team four times in one season.

But once the second half started, it didn’t seem too challenging for Melrose. The top-seeded Buffaloes pulled away after halftime, outscoring District 4-1A rival Grady 46-15 the rest of the way en route to a 73-34 quarterfinal victory Wednesday at Bernalillo High School.

Melrose (27-3) returns to Bernalillo High for a 3 p.m. Thursday semifinal against Quemado, which topped Evangel Christian 71-53. The Buffaloes in their first season under Kevin Lackey, are looking for their second state championship in three seasons.

Sterling Sena scored 15 to lead three in double figures for the Buffaloes, who had 11 of their players score on the day.

“We changed up our press and made a couple of adjustments,” Lackey said of the second half. “Also, Grady played really well in the first half. They made adjustments on defense, and they were hitting shots.”

Grady coach Jonathan Langan said heading into the matchup Melrose makes you pick your poison, and the Bronchos’ best best would be to collapse on the Buffaloes’ post players and hope they don’t get burned with 3-pointers.

“That’s what they’ve tried to do to us all year, and that’s what a lot of teams do to us because of our inside people,” Lackey said. “We’ve got a streaky shooting team. When we hit shots, we’re pretty tough to beat. We weren’t hitting many shots in the first half.”

Grady was led by Isaiah Mitchell’s 10, but only five other Bronchos scored between four and six points — including six from Lucas Whitehead and five from Chisum Rush.

Melrose will go from familiar ... to familiar, even though it didn’t face the Eagles (23-5) this year. David Lackey, who coaches Quemado, is Kevin Lackey’s brother while junior guard A.J. Lackey is his nephew.

“We’re going to have a family feud,” Lackey said. “They’re a talented team, with three guards who can play for anybody.”