Time again for a Berger (Classic)

It’s that time of year again, with the annual Jalene Berger Allstate Holiday Hoops Classic coming up this week marking the end of the calendar year.

Excluding the pandemic basketball season of 2020-21, the host Rio Rancho Rams have appeared in the last six tournament championship games and have won the last four, including last December’s 62-41 championship game rout of St. Pius X..

RRHS has hosted a tournament since 2007, and this iteration has been known as the Berger Classic since 2013, thanks to the Rio Rancho Allstate agent’s sponsorship.

Here are the games on the tournament’s opening day, Wednesday, Dec. 27:

• 1 p.m.: Española Valley vs. Hope Christian;
• 3 p.m.: St. Pius X vs. Santa Fe;
• 5 p.m.: Navajo Prep vs. Highland; and
• 7 p.m.: Sandia Prep vs. Rio Rancho.

Game times Thursday, the 28th, are the same. On Friday, the 29th, the seventh-place game tips off at 1 p.m.; the fifth-place game is at 3 p.m., the third-place game starts at 5 p.m. and the championship game begins at 7 p.m.

Rio Rancho High School coach Wally Salata says this is a fine field.

Three of the teams participating have been crowned tournament champs before: Highland in 2008; Española Valley in 2017 and Hope Christian in 2009, ’11, ’13 and ’15.

“People should be excited. Navajo Prep, who’s really good this year (vs. Highland) should be a very good first-round game, Salata said. “Hope playing Española Valley, (which is) better than last year; and Hope is Hope. That should be a good (Class)4A game.

“On our side of the bracket, Santa Fe is playing St. Pius. We don’t play Santa Fe this year; they took us off their schedule,” Salata continued. “I wanted to make sure they were on our side of the bracket. So if we both win our first-round game, we’ll meet up.

“Seeing what Santa Fe did to Cleveland (Dec. 8) … they almost pulled off the upset,” Salata noted. “Lukas Turner’s a great player and we’re gonna have our hands full if we played them.

“Early in the season, everyone’s playing well,” he said. “Our tournament has always been a quality tournament with quality teams and it’s gonna be the same thing this year.”

Storm hit the road for three games

Cleveland heads to the 64th Hobbs Holiday Tournament in iconic Tasker Arena, where it’s been an entrant since 2013, when it departed its participation in the Rio Rancho tournament – originally the brainchild of former RRHS coach Brian Smith.

The Storm won the Hobbs tourney in 2018 and ’19, beating the host Eagles in the title tilt each time; Hobbs returned the favor in 2021. Cleveland returned to the championship game last year, again defeating Hobbs.

This year, the Storm open the eight-team event Dec. 28 at 9:45 a.m. vs. Artesia. On the same side of the bracket with the Bulldawgs and Storm are Hirschi High (Texas) and two-time 5A New Mexico champ Volcano Vista.

The top half of the bracket has Hobbs-Ferris (Texas) and Farmington-Centennial matchups.

The championship game is set for 7:45 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 30.