RRHS boys lose third-place game to Navajo Prep

Can’t touch this: Rio Rancho senior Jayden Johnson goes in for a layup Wednesday evening, on his way to a team-high 18 points. (Photo by Joe Grimando)

RIO RANCHO – It’s long been said in sports that coaches coach and players make plays.

Rio Rancho High School boys’ basketball coach Wally Salata’s team is losing games and he’s losing his voice.

He desperately needs some leadership on the floor – he has seven seniors, yet none has stepped up – and the Rams (5-4) might be in a tailspin.

For the first time since 2015, the host Rams weren’t in the championship game of the annual Jalene Berger Allstate Holiday Hoops Classic, thanks to an exciting but frustrating 63-59 loss to Santa Fe Thursday evening in a semifinal.

That said, their loss to Class 3A’s Navajo Prep in Friday’s third-place game was less than exciting, unless you were a fan of the Eagles – and they had more fans in the RAC than the Rams did.

“The game plan was on the board. We told them who their shooters were and so it’s up to them to figure it out,” Salata said. “Eventually it comes to a point where you have seven seniors; the seniors have got to be able to know what’s going on.

“I can’t be out there yelling; my voice is gone,” he said. “My voice is gone – it comes to a point where they’ve got to figure it out themselves. … We knew what type of team they were; we knew from the summer.”

Navajo Prep 72, Rio Rancho 52: You make 13 3-pointers, you should win. You only make three? You’ll probably lose.

And so it was in the battle for third place.

The 3A Eagles (7-4), ranked No. 1 in the NMOT coaches’ poll and No. 2 in MaxPreps, trailed early and were down 15-11 at the end of the first quarter on Friday.

They assumed control in the second quarter, when Jude Thomas – playing more like former NBA star Isaiah Thomas – scored half of his game-high 32 points, including four treys.

The Eagles led 35-22 at halftime, with 11 first-half RRHS turnovers helping their cause.

“When you turn the ball over and without attacking the basket, (the Eagles) did a lot of good things out there in the second quarter,” Salata said. “That is a very good basketball team. … This is the sixth game we’ve played against quality competition.”

The Rams used a 7-0 run early in the second half to get within eight, 37-29, but that was as close as they’d get.

Xavier Nez made five 3-pointers, including four in a row in the second half, and finished with 20.

Jayden Johnson led the Rams with 20, but again struggled at the foul line, making just 3 of 8. Kevin Archuleta joined him in double figures with 12 points.

Santa Fe 63, Rio Rancho 59: The Demons started strong in their semifinal meeting with the Rams, taking an 18-7 advantage and leading to a Rams’ timeout with 2:13 left in the opening quarter.

Whatever Salata said then must have worked, because Rio Rancho went on a 17-2 run for a 24-20 lead.

But that ended the Rams’ good fortunes in the first half, as the Demons closed out the second period on a 10-0 run of their own, and led 30-24 at halftime.

The third period saw ties at 34 and 36; the Demons owned a 41-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter, in which each team scored 22 points.

Rio Rancho never gained a tie or the lead after that, trailing by as many as nine points and getting as close as one, 60-59, on a 3-pointer by Jerry Archuleta with 11.5 showing on the clock.

After a timeout, Santa Fe’s Nico Morales was fouled; he made one free throw, with the Rams’ Kevin Archuleta getting the rebound on the miss with 9.5 ticks to go. He fed the ball to Jerry Archuleta, but the Demons came up with the loose ball and Joe Gonzales was fouled in the process.

His two free throws with 2.8 seconds left made it a two-possession game and soon the end of the Rams’ five-game winning streak.

Gonzales led the victorious Demons with 19 points.

Johnson led the Rams with 15 points, fouling out with two minutes left in the game. Jerry Archuleta had 13 and Josiah Marfil – too sick to play much on Friday — came off the bench to drop in 11.

The major difference in the outcome came at the foul line, where Santa Fe went 25 of 29; the Rams were 15 of 21 there.

Rio Rancho 82, Sandia Prep 70: Like their win six nights earlier over Rio Grande, the Rams took control early in their Dec. 27 quarterfinal game, using an impressive 18-1 run in the opening quarter to grab a 30-18 lead heading into the second period.

Like that win over the Ravens, that humungous lead would later evaporate, although the winless Sundevils (ever tied or took the lead after their early 4-1 and 6-2 advantages.

Sandia Prep – playing the Rams for just the second time in the schools’ long history (April 10, 2021, a 65-59 Rams’ victory) – narrowed its deficit to six a couple times in the second quarter; when halftime ended it, the Rams were up by 10, 49-39.

The Sundevils got as close as seven points in the third quarter and after scoring the first basket of the fourth period, the Rams’ lead was down to 62-57.

Soon, it was 68-57. Johnson, on his way to a team-high 18 points, went in for a layup; Chris Lucero turned a Prep turnover into a layup; and a picture-perfect long, bounce pass from Johnson to Sean Parisian made the advantage 11 points.

The double-digit lead lasted the rest of the game.

Jerry Archuleta came off the bench to supply 17 points for the Rams, who got 10 apiece from Aidan Wood and Marfil, also non-starters.

Jacob Schierloh led the Sundevils with 20; he would have been a bigger factor in the game had he not missed 5 of 11 free throws in the first three quarters.

The Rams’ feisty defense led to many of Sandia Prep’s 31 turnovers; the Rams committed 13 turnovers, but made only one of 11 shots from behind the arc, and missed their final eight attempts.

Ram dunks: The Rams beat Santa Fe 48-42 in the 2021 Berger championship game.

… RRHS has games in Santa Fe, vs. Capital, on Jan. 4 and at Carlsbad on Jan. 6, in warm-ups for the APS Metro Championships that tip-off Jan. 9.

… In Friday’s other games, Highland beat St. Pius X 75-69 in overtime in the fifth-place game, and a buzzer-beating 3 gave Sandia Prep its first victory of the season in a 58-55 win over Española Valley.