State basketball tournament seeds released

The Los Lunas boys and girls basketball teams, as well as the Valencia boys, are heading on to the playoffs.

The Lady Tigers earned the number one seed in the field as they look to win their third straight state championship.

LLHS will host St. Pius at 6 p.m. on Friday in the first-round game.

Los Lunas has already beaten St. Pius three times this year, including last Friday in the district tournament championship.

The winner of that matchup will take on the winner of the 8/9 game between Espanola Valley and Bloomfield.

Kirtland Central, who earned the top seed in last year’s field and finished as the state runner-up, snagged the two seed, setting up a potential rematch.

Pojoaque Valley and Lovington is the 5/12 game, while Highland and Goddard round out the Tigers side of the bracket as the final first-round matchup.

All first-round games will be played in the home gym of the higher-seeded team before the event moves to Dreamstyle Arena in Albuquerque.

As for the Los Lunas boys, the Tigers enter the field as the sixth seed and will host Del Norte in the first round.

The Knights, who enter the tournament as the 11th seed, come into the game with a 14-12 record, including a 66-55 loss to the Tigers in Albuquerque in early December.

DNHS finished third in District 6/4A behind defending state champion Valley and Highland.

The two will face off at 6 p.m. on Saturday at LLHS.

Whoever wins the matchup on Saturday will take on the winner of a matchup between Highland and Lovington in the quarterfinals at Dreamstyle Arena on Wednesday, March 11.

Valencia enters the bracket at No. 9 and will travel to Taos for its first-round matchup against the Tigers. The game is slated to tip-off at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

The Tigers enter the game with a 21-7 record and finished second in 4A district 2 behind Espanola Valley. THS won the district tournament with a 49-47 win over EVHS last Saturday on a last second buzzer beater.

District 2 is noticeably weaker than many of the other districts in the state, with EV and Taos the only two teams that finished with records above .500. Pojaque Valley finished in third with an overall record of 10-17.

The winner of this matchup will move on to face the winner of the game between No. 1 seeded Valley and No. 16 seed Santa Teresa on Wednesday, March 11.

There are six criteria points that determine seeding for the tournament, which are finish in regular season district play, head to head records, wins against district champions regardless of class, overall record, and MaxPreps rankings.

Ties between schools are broken using head to head records, but in the event that the two did not play or tied, the MaxPreps rankings were used.