Tigers make first state final

BERNALILLO - Elida was set for a major challenge in Saturday night's Class 1A boys state championship basketball game at The Pit in Albuquerque.

As Clovis Christian can attest, the Tigers were going to have a big hill to climb.

Elida advanced to the first state boys basketball title matchup in school history on Friday at Bernalillo H.S., recovering from a sluggish start to beat Mesilla Valley 86-69. Meantime, top-seeded defending champion Magdalena showed it will be hard to stop for anyone in the class, crushing fifth-seeded Clovis Christian 71-25 in the late game.

Tigers coach Jared Fraze knew the Steers (29-1) would be a huge challenge.

"I watched them play at Texico," he said, referring to a late-December tournament that the Steers dominated. "We'll have to shut down (senior guard Joren Mirabal)."

Considered one of the top players in the state, Mirabal had a relatively modest night against the Eagles (21-8), finishing about five points under his average with 21. But CCS (21-8) simply was unable to do anything against the Steers.

Clovis Christian trailed just 4-2 after about five minutes, but Mag hit the Eagles with a quick flurry and by the end of the period it was 21-3.

"They (Steers) played well, and nothing went right for us," CCS coach Trent McKay said.

Mirabal had four of his team's seven 3-pointers. Six-foot-4 freshman Joseph Zamora was the only other player in double digits for Magdalena with 19 points - 10 in the first quarter, 15 by halftime - but eight others contributed to the scoring column.

Think the Steers are going anywhere? While Mirabal graduates, the team has only one other senior and he didn't score in Friday's matchup.

Junior guard Carter Teune scored a team-high seven points for CCS, which lost an earlier neutral-court tilt to the Steers 82-37.

Meantime, second-seeded Elida (22-5) trailed 21-13 at the quarter and was still down by four at halftime. But Mesilla Valley's lack of depth caught up with it in the second half, when the Sonblazers were outscored 43-26.

The Tigers also dealt Mesilla Valley (22-2), seeded third, its only other loss with a 57-42 victory during a mid-December tournament at Elida.

"I think they surprised us," Fraze said. "We weren't ready for the type of intensity that Mesilla showed up with. They were ready to play and our boys were a little flat."

Elida went from a 2-3 zone to man-to-man after halftime and completely flustered the Las Cruces-based Sonblazers.

"They couldn't handle the pressure," Fraze said. "The kids played great in fullcourt man-to-man; we forced lots of turnovers off it."

Elida used a 13-0 run to take a seven-point advantage late in the third period, then put the game completely out of reach with a 15-2 surge down the stretch to lead by 20.

Senior post Rylan Creighton scored 27 points and added six rebounds and seven assists for Elida, while junior guard Aiden Yates had 22 points and a team-high eight caroms. Brothers Jose and Seth Jimenez also reached double digits with 15 and 10 points, respectively.

Junior Mateo D'Antonio led four Sonblazers in double figures with 18 points, followed by seniors James Benjamin with 17 and Carlo Velarde with 14 and junior Logan Morris with 12.