Hoops galore this week; 3 games for each of 3 city teams

RIO RANCHO – Three of the City of Vision’s four varsity basketball teams begin playing in three-day tournaments that tip off Thursday in Rio Rancho and Albuquerque.

The fourth, the Rio Rancho High School boys’ team, also has a three-day tournament in the city, but it’s not until Dec. 27-29. That’s the Jalene Berger Allstate Holiday Hoops event. (More on that next week.) The Rams boys – idle this week — were in the three-day City of Champions tournament in Artesia last week.

Here’s a look at the tournaments starting Dec. 14 and running through Saturday.

Phil Griego Invitational

Griego is a former Storm assistant coach who passed away; a longtime resident of Rio Rancho, he coached the St. Pius X girls’ team for a long time before being added to the Storm staff.

Last December, the Storm came up short in the title tilt, as former CHS standout Elijah Brody keyed a West Mesa run that led to a 66-63 overtime victory for the Mustangs. In the tournament’s 2021 debut, the Storm lost the championship game to Volcano Vista.

Maybe the proverbial “Third time’s the charm” will prove true.

The Storm play in the finale of the first day. Here are Thursday’s game times and matchups:

At noon, Sandia meets Del Norte; at 2, it’s Roswell vs. Menaul; at 4, two-time defending 5A state champ Volcano Vista takes on Carlsbad; and at 6, the Storm take the floor in the Thunderdome to meet Miyamura, from Gallup.

Game times Friday at 1,3 5 and 7 p.m. The Storm play at 1 with a Thursday loss, at 7 with a win.

On Saturday, game times are 10 a.m. (seventh-place game), noon (fifth-place game), 2 (third-place game) and 4 (championship game).

Mel Otero Invitational

The Rio Rancho High School girls’ team won its first six games and is off to its best start since the 2008-09 season – the finale for original girls’ coach Bobby McIntyre, who once had current head coach Lori (Stephenson) Mabrey as his top assistant.

On their way to the great start – they were 5-1 at this point last season — the Rams won the Bobby Rodriguez Capital City Basketball Tournament after a 54-40 win over Cleveland and are winning games by an average of more than 22 points. It was the second year in row the Storm finished as runners-up.

Originally called the Mel Otero Invitational in honor of the legendary college basketball official, with his memory cherished by his son Tony, the owner of the Rio Rancho Dairy Queen, the tournament lost its title during the Scott Peterson era here.

As the Mel Otero Invite, officials are honored every year, making it the lone tournament to do so. Honored this week are J.J. Jackson, Oscar Payen, Cliff Jenkins and Lisa Romero. Tony Otero said he’s grateful for this year’s other sponsors: Visit Rio Rancho, Graphic Connections and Plant World.

Once Mabrey replaced Peterson, she wanted the tourney title back, and so it is, for the first time since its vanilla “Rio Rancho Girls Invitational” name.

Here are the matchups Thursday in first-round action: Centennial vs. Rio Rancho at 1 p.m.; Clovis vs. Mayfield at 3; Sandia vs. Santa Fe at 5; and Eldorado vs. Robertson at 7.

Game times remain the same Friday; on Saturday, game times are 9 a.m. (seventh-place game), 11 a.m. (third-place game), 1 p.m. (fifth-place game) and 3 p.m. (championship game).

If the Rams lose Thursday, they’ll play at 3 p.m. Friday; a win over the Hawks puts the Rams into a semifinal game Friday at 1. Either way, they’ll meet either Sandia or Santa Fe.

St. Pius X, absent from this year’s field, won last year’s invitational with a 47-42 win over the Rams.

Joe Armijo Basketball Classic

The Cleveland girls (3-2 before a Dec. 12 game at Eldorado) have been entered in this Albuquerque Academy tournament, honoring a former Albuquerque Academy athletic director, since 2016; the Storm won the championship in 2018, and finished fifth last year.

After Hope Christian meets Highland in the opener Thursday at 9:45 a.m., the Storm face Organ Mountain at 1:15. The other games are Las Cruces vs. Farmington at 3 and Cibola vs. the host Chargers at 4:45. (There is also an eight-team boys tournament taking place there, hence the staggered times.)

If the Storm win, they’ll play in a semifinal Friday at 3 p.m.; a loss to the Knights., and they’ll move to the losers’ bracket Friday at 8 a.m.

Saturday’s game times are 9:45 a.m. (seventh-place game), 11:30 a.m. (fifth-place game), 3 p.m. (third-place game) and 6:30 p.m. (championship game).