RRHS boys advance after routing Cibola

RIO RANCHO – Next stop: South Valley.

The Rio Rancho High School boys’ basketball team is at Atrisco Heritage Academy this evening (Feb. 28) at 7 for a District 1-5A tournament game, after beating visiting Cibola Tuesday evening in the RAC.

The Rams (13-14) have lost twice to the Jaguars, who knocked them out of last year’s state tournament in the first round, 101-97 in OT in the RAC and 75-64 at AHA.

Tonight’s winner heads to Cleveland Thursday at 7 in the district tournament semifinal; that game’s winner visits Volcano Vista Saturday at 2 p.m. in the 1-5A championship game.

Rio Rancho 95, Cibola 72: Rams coach Wally Salata has been around long enough to know that if his Rams lost their home game with Cibola on Feb. 27, their season would probably be over.

It was the first game of the 1-5A tournament, the fifth-place team at the fourth-place team.

“You lose that game you don’t get in,” he said. “The first thing is we stopped our losing streak,” Salata said, after his team snapped its six-game skid. “We’ve got to come ready to play every night. … You lose, you go home.

“This type of game gives us confidence to go into tomorrow (and a game at Atrisco Heritage Academy).”

Both teams had but one district win heading into the tournament: The Rams won at Cibola; the Cougars won in the RAC.

The Rams left no doubt as to which team was better, using a 15-2 run in the first quarter to take the lead and never look back.

The Rams’ lead was as large as eight in the first period, 15 in the second quarter and 22 in the third period. The Cougars (6-21) got as close as 14 in the fourth quarter and failed to make the 16-team bracket; they haven’t been at state since the 2016-17 season, which ended with a quarterfinal loss at Cleveland.

All five Rams starters finished in double figures led by Josiah Marfil’s 19. Noah Montoya was deadly in the paint, finishing with 16; Jerry Archuleta had 13, and Jayden Johnson and Kayden Decker had 11 apiece. Unselfish throughout the game, Johnson probably had as many assists as points in the contest.

CHS freshman Elijah Martinez, 13 of 14 at the foul line, led his team with 18 points.

The Rams won all four quarters, which made Salata happy, and only trailed briefly, with ties at 7 and 9 in the first quarter.

RRHS sank four of its first five attempts from behind the arc, fed Montoya inside for easy layups and used exceptional defense to help force 10 CHS turnovers in the first half, 19 for the game.

The game also marked the varsity debut of Jordan McNeely who sank a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.

STATE TOURNAMENT INFO

• The NMAA State Basketball Selection Show will be Sunday, March 3, on the NMAA website (www.nmact.org). If you need an explanation of the seeding and selection process, visit this link:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhCPRtxda_s&feature=youtu.be
• The 2024 NMAA state basketball tournament passes are on sale. Tickets are $155 for general tournament passes, which will ONLY be sold over the phone on a first-come, first-served basis, with no in-person sales taken. To purchase your state basketball tournament passes, call 505-923-3266. The final day to purchase is Thursday, March 7, by noon.

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