Jaguars hit century mark again in beating another Rio Rancho team

With his low center of gravity and athleticism, Atrisco Heritage Academy’s Latavious Morris, who once attended Lincoln Middle School in Rio Rancho, goes around Cleveland’s Daniel Steverson in first-half action Jan. 31 at AHA. (Herron photo)

ALBUQUERQUE – Regardless of who you root for or which team is yours, sometimes you just have to appreciate another team’s athlete for what he/she can do.

Not everyone is a Kansas City Chiefs fan, but how can you not be amazed at what quarterback Patrick Mahomes does on the field?

Not everyone is a Los Angeles Dodgers fan, but how can you not appreciate what outfielder/infielder Mookie Betts does at the ballpark?

So, it is with fans of Rio Rancho or Cleveland high schools in the City of Vision, as Atrisco Heritage Academy junior point guard Latavious Morris went off for 40 points on Jan. 26 in the Jaguars’ 101-97 overtime win at Rio Rancho High School, then 48 points five nights later at home vs. Cleveland in a 102-98 victory?

It was pretty much a run-and-gun, back-and-forth contest, with eight lead changes – and the Storm leading by as much as 10 points – until a deadlock at 77, after a layup “and one” by CHS’s Daniel Steverson. Morris followed that with two free throws to give AHA the lead, and the Jaguars were never tied or behind in the remaining six minutes.

Cleveland coach Zack Cole knows Morris is among the state’s best – most of them seem to play for his rivals in District 1-5A, including Morris’s teammate Marquise Renfro, Volcano Vista’s duo of Kenyon Aguino and David Lunn, and RRHS’s Jayden Johnson – but what aggravate him the most was seeing Morris at the foul line.

“The one thing I was frustrated about was we can’t send him to the line,” Cole said, about 20 minutes after talking to his team in the locker room. “You avoid those by staying on your feet.”

Morris went 18 for 18 at the line, tossed in four 3-pointers and displayed a great deal of athleticism as he sparkled in the game. He wasn’t perfect: He committed a few mistakes, including making a bad pass that the Storm’s Remy Albrecht turned into an easy layup to trim the Jaguars’ lead to 97-96 with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Cole then called a timeout, and Morris was soon back at the foul line, where his two free throws upped his team’s lead to 99-96.

Then the Storm made a fatal mistake: An over-and-back call gave the Jaguars the ball with 13.2 ticks to go. Morris was again fouled and made both free throws, and a late bucket by Steverson made it a three-point game, with 7.4 seconds left.

AHA’s Kadarious Sims was fouled with 2.6 seconds to play, and though he wasn’t perfect, he made a free throw to make it a two-possession game and soon the enthusiastic AHA students and fans were rejoicing.

“To his credit, he’s very crafty,” Cole said of Morris. “We had a tough start to the district; I don’t know if there’s a tougher way to start district than going on the road to Volcano (a 68-46 setback on Jan. 24), going on the road to Atrisco.

“We talked about the path to the district title: We gotta take care of home court; we gotta steal a couple on the road. …We put up our goals from the beginning, on the board now, and they’re all attainable, but we have to do something about it.”

In addition to Morris’s four-dozen points Marquise Renfro had 26 and Sims was also in double figures with 11.

As usual, Steverson led the Storm with 36, Albrecht had 25 and Noah Padilla added 14.

Cleveland 93, Cibola 57: Padilla had another good game with 20 points Friday night, when the Storm handed last-place Cibola (5-17, 0-4) a 36-point setback – the third game in a row the Cougars have lost to the Storm by 30 or more points.

Storm warnings: When the Storm beat AHA, 78-62, on Jan. 12 in an APS Metro Championships semifinal, Morris was in foul trouble early and didn’t become a factor. The Storm get another shot at the Jaguars on Feb. 15 in the Thunderdome.

… Cleveland is at Rio Rancho thjis evening (Feb. 6) and is home Thursday (Feb. 8) to meet Volcano Vista for the fifth time this season; the Hawks are 3-1 thus far vs. CHS.

… You have to go back to the 2018-19 season to see when the Storm scored 98 or more points: It happened twice that season, a 103-72 opening-night win over visiting Albuquerque High (Coincidentally, AHS’s coach then, Ron Garcia, was at the Jan. 31 game at AHA) and 100-97 over Roswell in the Cleveland tournament.