District play begins for all county basketball teams

 

Belen Eagles

The Belen boys kicked off district play with a win over in-county rival, Valencia.

Daniel Corrales scored 13 points and Luis Garcia added 11 points as the Eagles disposed of the Jaguars by a final of 49-43 last week.

“Every game is going to be tough in district,” said head coach Donald Marquez after the Valencia contest. “I told our guys to not be looking at records. We’re going to be in dog fights with everyone. We got a win here against a team who scouted us well.”

Friday’s road trip to Highland ended in a tough, 48-47, overtime loss for the Eagles. The loss pushes the Eagles record down to 12-6 on the season and 1-1 in-district play.

This upcoming week is a somewhat busy one for Belen, as they will play two games in two straight days.

First up is a home game against St. Pius on Friday. On Saturday, the Eagles will play at Los Alamos in a non-district contest.

The Lady Eagles fell to Valencia to open their week and district play up. The final was 54-14 in favor of the Lady Jaguars.

The Lady Eagles also lost on Friday night, a 67-21 decision to Highland. That loss dropped them to 1-17 overall and 0-2 in-district.

Up next for the Lady Eagles will be a home game against the Highland Hornets on Friday night in Belen.

 

Los Lunas Tigers

The Los Lunas boys got back into the win column last week when they opened district play against Manzano.

Jalin Holland had 23 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Tigers to a 65-46 victory over the Monarchs. Jamian Perez added 12 points in the victory.

Los Lunas then pulled off a huge in-district win over Santa Fe, 58-53, on Friday night.

Holland led the way in that contest for LLHS with 23 points and six rebounds.

The Tigers are now 10-8 on the season, and 2-0 in-district play.

The Tigers will have two games this upcoming week, both in-district tilts.

First, they will take on Capital up in Santa Fe, then they will square off with Rio Grande on Friday night in Albuquerque.

The Lady Tigers extended their winning streak last week, after defeating Manzano to open up district.

Los Lunas cruised to a 49-24 victory over the Lady Monarchs, winning three in a row.

Unfortunately that winning streak came to an end Friday night as the Lady Tigers were defeated 46-36 by Santa Fe. That loss dropped the Tigers to 3-14 overall and 1-1 in-district.

Up next for the Lady Tigers is two home games for the upcoming week.

First, they will play host to Capital before entertaining Rio Grande on Friday night at the LLHS gym.

 

Valencia Jaguars

The Valencia boys had a tough start to their district play when they visited Belen last week.

Despite leading at halftime, the Jaguars offense sputtered in the second half as they lost by a final of 49-43 to the Eagles.

Damian Estrada did have 15 points in the loss for the Jaguars, while Ali Abdullah had 12 points before fouling out late in the contest.

The Jaguars also fell to St. Pius last week by a final of 54-37.

In that contest, Abdullah scored 15 points for Valencia, who fell to 5-14 on the season and 0-2 in-district.

Coming up this week for Valencia is a road game against Grants before having the rest of the week off.

The Valencia girls basketball team opened district with a huge win over Belen.

Elena Lucero led the way for the Lady Jaguars with 14 points and 6 steals, as Valencia won 54-14.

Azalia Malizia had 6 points and nine steals as well for the Lady Jaguars in the win.

Valencia then grabbed a 39-37 win over St. Pius on Friday night to push their record to 11-7 overall and 2-0 in-district.

In that win, Sonja Lopez scored 11 points for the Lady Jaguars, while Zoe Brown scored 9 points and had 6 rebounds.

The Lady Jaguars will have two games this upcoming week, one a district game and one non-district game.

Up first is the district tilt with Grants, at home, then Valencia will travel to take on Chaparral in the non-district game, which will be on Saturday.