ALAMOSA— Friday evening fans of 1A basketball poured into Plachy Hall to watch the district finals untangle themselves. In a packed ticket Sierra Grande and Creede advanced from the boys’ bracket for the championship game. The girls of Antonito and Sangre de Cristo dispatched their opponents in the semifinals to set their 1A final.

The first game of the evening was a girls’ game between Sangre de Cristo and La Veta. These two teams got reacquainted after their first meeting of the season taking place less than a week prior. In their Feb. 17 meeting Sangre de Cristo won handily, Friday night the T-Birds posted similar numbers with another easy win.

Even with six girls dressed Sangre de Cristo has had little trouble outpacing most opponents all season. Their dominance looks to continue into the postseason. The two heavy hitters from up north showed out again on Friday night. Kylee Christensen and Jessica Slane stayed hot to help advance Sangre to the title game. Slane posted 19 and Christensen netted a team leading 21 hitting four from downtown in the process propelling Sangre de Cristo to a 61-29 win.

Up next was first of the two boys games, the anticipated meeting of the Sierra Grande Panthers and Sangre de Cristo’s Thunderbirds. The Panthers and T-Birds would miss each other at the Thunderbird Shootout at the start of the season, their first meeting taking place on Feb. 16. On that day the Panthers came up big with a 57-51 win to hand the T-Birds their third loss of the season. 

Friday night both teams got off to similar starts with a 21-18 first quarter in Sierra Grande’s favor. Sangre would stumble first with an anemic second quarter managing 8-points and going to the half 40-26. The Thunderbirds would get back into it when Sierra Grande slowed producing seven third quarter points.

At the start of the fourth six points separated the competitors. Sierra Grande would turn that six-point lead into a 67-57 win. Sangre de Cristo found some hot spots on the court with seven team three-pointers. It would not be enough to keep pace with the one man wrecking ball Arthur Rodriguez. Rodriguez buried five from outside the arc and amassed a team leading 37 points, far surpassing his state ranked average points per game.

The third event featured the other half of the girls’ bracket in which Antonito met Sierra Grande. Their last meeting on Jan. 19 resulted in a 61-51 victory for Sierra Grande. Antonito’s pair of Erykah Tallman and Joslyn Garcia showed up under the bright lights of Plachy Hall combining for 34 points. Garcia led the Trojans with 19 collecting a trey and going 2-of-4 on her freebies.

The Panthers’ leaders were noticeably quieter, neither Abby Corona nor Nina Vigil broke double digits in scoring on the night. Annahy Quezada stepped up in the void and performed admirably for Sierra Grande. Quezada averages 5.7 points per game in recorded games.

On Friday night the Sierra Grande junior would surpass that number. Quezada posted one of the best games of her season with 11 points off the bench to lead the team. A slow second half for the Panthers and Trojans’ consistency led to a 63-33 final in Antonito’s favor. 

The final event would complete the boys’ bracket. Creede took on Primero’s Bulldogs. Their first game was a tight competitive meeting with the Miners taking a five-point game on Jan. 13. Friday night Creede would pace the Bulldogs all night. Isaac Borchers took the scoring title for the Miners with 21 points hitting 9 of his 13 free throws. Another pace setter for Creede was Casper Freedle who opened his night with three straight buckets from downtown to collect 13 points in the game.

Championship games

In the final day of the Valley basketball’s 1A district tournament on Saturday, Antonito’s girls were the first to be crowned taking a victory over Sangre de Cristo 44-34 for the 1A district championship. Also in 1A, Creede’s boys defeated Sierra Grande by a score of 55-51 to claim their district title.

The Lady Trojans and T-Birds had met twice during the regular season splitting the two games. The third meeting would decide the district champion. Both teams warmed up in the first combining for 17 points. It was Antonito that came on first with a rally led by Yasmeen Diego. Diego would score seven in the second quarter and Antonito took a 23-15 lead into the midway point. 

Sangre’s Jessica Slane was slowed from her usual production hitting three from the field and three free throws for nine points. Usual sure shot from the free throw line Kylee Christensen was also off for the T-Birds, only netting three of her eight freebies. In their absence Avery Palmgren stepped up hitting three baskets in the second half. Added to her five penalty shots Palmgren led Sangre with 11 points.

Antonito’s Erykah Tallman stayed busy in the second half and would cap her night with a team-leading 15 points to lift the Trojans to a championship win.

Creede and Sierra Grande’s boys were next in Adams State’s Plachy Hall playing for the boys’ district title. In the two prior meetings between the rivals they split.

Saturday night Creede would take the upper hand immediately with a 10-8 first quarter. Arthur Rodriguez and the Panthers would strike back in the second quarter outscoring Creede 18-12, of those 14 belonged to Rodriguez. Rodriguez scored 30 points before his night was through. Sierra Grande would own a 26-22 lead at the half.

The Panthers had posed a question, and Creede had the answer in the third. Isaac Borchers would net five points in the third spearheading a 19-point charge to take the lead back. Borchers led the Miners with 18 points on the night. The Panthers were doomed in the fourth when trailing by one Rodriguez fouled out with two minutes to go. Creede would go on to win.