Adam Evarts | News-Bulletin photos
Los Lunas’s Hadley Beatty goes in for a layup against the Valencia Jaguars during their game on Dec 17.

 

Basketball

The Los Lunas boys basketball team got some county bragging rights this past week, defeating the Valencia Jaguars, 69-29, on Friday night.

The Tigers had four players score in double figures, led by Ezra Guest’s 16 points to led the way to victory.

Jalin Holland added 15 points, while Isaiah Aragon scored 14 points and Hadley Beatty had 13 points for the Tigers, who are now 4-5 on the season.

Ali Abdullah scored 13 points for Valencia in the loss.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Tigers that included a 75-44 loss to No. 3 Las Cruces last week.

The Los Lunas boys will be at the Clovis Invitational this week.

For Valencia, the loss to the Tigers wasn’t the only game they played over the weekend. On Saturday, the Jaguars lost a close one at home to Goddard, 68-65.

Abdullah had 23 points, while Damien Estrada scored 14 points and Fernando Enriquez had 11 for Valencia.

The Jaguars are now 3-8 on the season, and will be off this week as they prepare to go to the Las Cruces Holiday Tournament beginning Dec. 27.

The Belen boys basketball team got back into the win column last week with a victory over Del Norte on Thursday night with a final score of 50-42.

Daniel Corrales led the way for the Eagles with 20 points. Brody Jaquez added 19 points for Belen, who is now 6-4 on the season.

Belen is off this week as they prepare to go to the Stu Clark Invitational, beginning on Dec. 27, in Las Vegas, N.M. The Eagles will open the tournament against Bernalillo.

On the girls side, the Valencia Lady Jaguars made it two wins in a row as they defeated Del Norte, 43-24, on Friday night.

Jadyn Montoya led the way with 13 points and three steals, while Azalia Malizia scored 12 points and had three assists and Zoe Brown scored 7 points and had four rebounds.

“The girls have been getting better and better each game,” head coach Micaela Medina said. “What I really like about this group of girls is that they understand it’s not always about who scores the most points, they all find different ways to contribute.”

The Lady Jaguars are now 5-4 on the season and will be at the Las Cruces Tournament beginning on Dec. 27, opening with a game against Artesia.

The Los Lunas Lady Tigers fell over the weekend to the No. 3 Volcano Vista Lady Hawks by a final of 55-18. The Lady Tigers are now 0-7 on the season and will be playing this week in the Clovis Invitational.

Adam Evarts | News-Bulletin photo
Tayden Hanks tries to get the attention of her teammate Klarissa Hall against Volcano Vista.

The Belen Lady Eagles fell to Valley and Los Alamos last week. In the game against Valley, a 47-24 Viking win, Annahy Aguilar led the way for the Lady Eagles with 10 points and Maesyn Lopez scored eight points.

Against Los Alamos, a 42-18 Lady Hilltopper win, it was Lopez leading the way with eight points again. Cadence Martinez scored four points in the loss as well.

The Lady Eagles are 1-8 this season and will be playing next week in the Goddard Tournament. Belen opens that tournament on Dec. 28 against Bloomfield.

Wrestling

The Los Lunas Tigers boys wrestling team made the trip to the Rattler Invite in Tucumcari over the weekend and left with the overall team win.

The Tigers garnered 219 points in the invite, besting nine other schools that participated in the event. Six Tiger wrestlers took home first place in their weight divisions.

Ernie Gonzales won in the 120-pound category, Aaron Zamora won the 126-pound category, Naithan Gurule won his 152-pound category, while Nicholas Torres won in the 160-pound category. Miguel Andrade took home the 170-pound victory and Ryan Vega was best in the 285-pound category.

Edward Freeman, Jonathan Trujillo and James Garcia all finished runner-up in their weight classes during the Invite. Isaiah Baca finished third in the 132-pound category.

The Los Lunas boys team is done until Jan. 7, when they will be at Cleveland High School for the Cleveland Invite.

The Los Lunas girls wrestling team was in Roswell over the weekend for the Rio Hondo Girls Scuffle. Julianna Lucero finished runner-up in the 126-pound category, losing to Cleveland High School’s Heaven Handy in the first place match at the tournament.

The girls team will be back in action on Jan. 8 for the Atrisco Invite.

The Valencia boys wrestling team was in action at the Rattler Invite as well.

The Jaguars took home seventh place overall and saw several of its wrestlers place in the top three in their weight classes.

Coming home runner-up in the 113-pound category was Richard Madrid. Jacob Raley took third-place in the 160-pound category, with Elijah Duran also taking third in the 195-pound category. Omar Estrada also took home a third-place effort, his coming in the 220-pound category.

The Jaguars will be back in action Jan. 6 when they take on St. Pius.

The Belen Eagles were in Roswell for the Rio Hondo Scuffle as well. Diego Avila led the way for Belen, winning the 138-pound category over John Montoya of Cleveland High School. Three other Belen wrestlers finished runner-up in their weight classes.

Josiah Pemble in the 120-pound category, Peter Duran in the 152-pound category and Tregg Johnson at 285 pounds.

The Belen girls wrestling team was also in Roswell for the Rio Hondo Scuffle. The Lady Eagles saw Kaitlyn Maria take home a third-place in the 285-pound category, and Callie Morgan grab fourth in the 100-pound category.

The Eagles will be back in action on Jan. 5 against Grants.

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Adam Evarts is a graduate of the University of New Mexico where he studied journalism and history. He has lived in Valencia County most of his life. Adam covers sports for the Valencia County News-Bulletin, including prep competitions for the three local high schools, Senior Olympics, rodeo, Little League and more.