eNewMexican

Lady Braves crush Capital

By Will Webber wwebber@sfnewmexican.com

The calendar says we’re still about three months away from the Class 3A girls basketball state championship game in

The Pit.

If the early returns on the 2021-22 season are any indication, it’s not far-fetched to imagine Santa Fe Indian School being part of the postseason mix before the hardware is handed out.

The Lady Braves remained undefeated Tuesday night with a 56-14 blowout win at Capital’s Edward A. Ortiz Memorial Gymnasium. SFIS (7-0) forced 30 turnovers and spent most of the second half watching the time fly off the scoreboard via the mercy rule that ushers in the running clock after a team builds a 35-point lead.

By all accounts, the SFIS defense has been rock-solid, allowing just 32.5 points a game heading into this week’s wickedly tough Al Armendariz Classic at Capital. The tournament features Thursday’s 8 a.m. opening-round game between the Lady Braves and perennial power Gallup, but the field also includes traditional title contenders like Hobbs, Navajo Prep and Española Valley.

“It’s a great tournament and one that will tell us a lot about this team,” said SFIS coach Patricia Chavez. “We’ll be seeing some of the best teams in the state, and Gallup is a big, formidable opponent. I want to challenge my girls, have them compete against a team like that to see where they can go.”

As for Tuesday’s game, it only took a matter of seconds to get things tilted in the Lady Braves’ favor. Guard Jordan Torres took the opening tip and drained a 3-pointer just five seconds into it. Jalen Abeyta added an old-fashioned threepoint play just 28 seconds later, making it 6-0 before the Jaguars had even attempted a shot.

As it turned out, forcing turnovers was easier than forcing tough shots for the SFIS defense. Capital coughed it up 12 times in the first quarter. The total was 21 at halftime and was cut down drastically in the second half thanks to the running clock.

The Jaguars didn’t score a single

point for the final nine-plus minutes of the game, a tribute to the waves of solid defenders SFIS threw at them all night.

Still, Chavez wasn’t all that impressed. There’s plenty of room for improvement, she said.

“Defense is a work in progress right now so, yeah, we’ve been trying to focus on that,” she said.

Cameron Conners led SFIS with 17 points while Torres had 14. Conners and Abeyta combined for more than a dozen rebounds while Torres sat for most of the second half after doing all her scoring in the first two quarters.

SFIS led by 15 after one quarter and used a 17-1 run to blow open what had been a modest 8-4 lead less than two minutes into the contest.

Capital made just six shots the entire game; two in each of the first three quarters. By game’s end, both teams had emptied their benches, which contributed to the missed shots.

“We’re a fast team, and we do a lot with our defense,” Conners said.

One of the top post players in 3A this season, Conners said it’s never too early to look down the road and wonder about the looming showdowns with district rival and fellow 3A heavyweight Robertson.

Both teams have looked sharp in the early going; Robertson won last week’s Bobby Rodriguez Capital City Tournament and SFIS took home the title from a tournament at West Las Vegas. Through the first twoplus weeks of the regular season, the District 2-3A rivals are already looking forward to at least two meetings in the regular season and at least another one or two in the district tournament and state playoffs.

“It’s something we think about, sure,” Conners said. “We’re a good team; they’re a good team. The longer we go the more it will come up.”

If only the calendar would hurry up and get to March.

NOTES

Capital (1-2) got a team-high seven points from guard Kayla Martinez. She hit her team’s only 3-pointer, draining a jumper early in the second quarter to cut the SFIS lead to 25-8 . ... The Jaguars’ other seven points were shared by Ashley Perez (1), Amerie Romero (2) and Annalise Leos (4) . ... Capital is winless at home, getting its lone victory on the road last week at Pecos. The Jaguars open play in the Armendariz Classic against Pecos at 5 p.m. Thursday . ... The SFIS-Gallup winner will play the Capital-Pecos winner in Friday’s semifinals while the other half of the bracket is stacked with power teams. Hobbs and Española Valley face off in the mid-afternoon game and West Las Vegas gets Navajo Prep around the lunch hour . ... Unlike most tournaments, Capital did not charge an entry fee for visiting teams. Typically, in-season events call for a fee of $250 or more per team. This one was free, which at least partially explains why the field is so competitive and farflung, with teams from as distant as Farmington and Hobbs.

SPORTS

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2021-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://enewmexican.com/article/281930251274416

Santa Fe New Mexican