Cleveland boys fall to Hobbs in quarterfinals

The Class 5A boys state basketball quarterfinals March 12 at the Pit yielded neither surprise nor suspense, as No. 1 Volcano Vista, No. 2 Hobbs, No. 3 Sandia and No. 4 Roswell powered their way into the semifinals, each winning by at least 13 points.

No. 2 HOBBS 66, No. 7 CLEVELAND 53: It was a game in Rio Rancho two months ago that proved to be a useful road map for the Eagles (26-4) as they advanced to the semifinals.

Thinking back to a visit to Cleveland in mid-January, Hobbs was enjoying a comfortable second-half lead that afternoon, but eventually, Remy Albrecht’s 47-point afternoon led to the Storm coming from behind to win 84-75.

Hobbs was up 12 that day early in the third quarter.

Hobbs was up 13 midway through the third quarter Wednesday.

Hobbs was having none of Cleveland’s comeback noise this time, particularly after the Eagles came out of halftime and put up the first 10 points of the third quarter — highlighted by bookend dunks from Abraham Peña and Parker Henderson — for a 38-25 advantage.

“That’s all we talked about these past few days,” Hobbs coach Ronald Ross said. “It was about composure, calmness, a sense of togetherness, and attitude. We watched how our bench was that last game, we had terrible bench energy. We just watched it over and over and over again.”

Indeed, the Eagles fended off a few mini bursts from Cleveland (19-11) in the second half Wednesday, but they were not in danger. The Storm got as close as nine points with just under two minutes remaining, but Hobbs had the answers this time.

“Slowly,” Ross said, “we were able to break them down and start doing some things we were able to do,”

This was especially true of the paint. Hobbs out-rebounded the Storm 41-29. The Eagles had 44 paint points to just 20 for Cleveland. The Eagles’ 7-footer, Henderson, may only have had six points and six rebounds (and five blocked shots), but his mere presence, as is often the case, forced plenty of detours and improvising on Cleveland’s part at the offensive end.

Hobbs’ other inside factor was senior forward Jairus Turrubiates, who had 14 points and 14 rebounds.

“We had a huge size advantage, we just tried to make the most of it,” Turrubiates said.

And the Storm didn’t shoot near well enough (28.3% on 17 of 60 from the floor) to make up the difference. Albrecht, for example, finished with 21 points but he was just 6 of 21 from the field, and made only one of his tries from beyond the arc.

“We were getting open looks, they just weren’t going in,” said Albrecht.

Hobbs shot 59% from the floor in the second half (16 of 27).

Additionally in the quarterfinals, No. 1 Volcano Vista took down La Cueva 82-48; No. 3 Sandia took down Albuquerque High 62-49; and No. 4 Roswell ended No. 12 Farmington’s season 76-41.

In the semifinals, Sandia nearly doubled up Hobbs, winning 74-39, while Volcano Vista continued its dominance over Roswell, 70-43.

Saturday brought an exciting championship game, as Volcano Vista completed its quest for a four-peat, taking down Sandia 60-53 in overtime.