Eagles edge Rams at state tournament

By Eric Maddy
The SCORE

ALBUQUERQUE -- Dream denied, yet again.

Second-seeded Eldorado shut out Rio Rancho for the final 3:20 of the game and made four of six free throws in the same time span to beat the Rams 29-26 in a Class 5A semifinal game at the state high school basketball tournament Thursday afternoon at University Arena.

The Eagles, who will play top-ranked La Cueva for the state title Saturday afternoon, shot 18 percent from the field (including 0-of-9 from three-point range), was outrebounded by 10 and had 19 turnovers – and still won.

The difference was in free throws, where the Eagles were 15-of-24 compared to 9-of-16 for Rio Rancho. Eldorado had just one basket in the final period – and that came within the opening 26 seconds of the quarter – but managed to overcome a three-point deficit by shooting 11 of 17 from the charity stripe in the final period.

It’s not to say the game was poorly officiated. In a battle of floor burns where every shot seemed contested and every non-scoring possession ended up with someone on the floor, Eldorado just happened to catch a few more breaks at the end to deny the Rams their first appearance ever in the state finals.

Rio Rancho has qualified for the state tournament nine straight years under head coach Bob McIntyre and made the state semifinals five times, but never has been able to earn a spot in the title game. It appeared the Rams might break through during the grueling game, but in a game that resembled a throwback to the 1980s it was the Eagles, a dominant team under current University of New Mexico head coach Don Flannigan, who prevailed.

“The fact that we were in it at the very end and obviously had a chance to win the ballgame – I’m disappointed,” McIntyre said. “Our kids are really disappointed. It’s been a fun group to coach.

“We really played as a team all year long, so they’re all hurting together right now.”

“We tried to keep Eldorado away from finishing in transition. Obviously the pace of the game favored our team. The fact that Eldorado couldn’t score (meant) they really couldn’t really press.

“Our kids did a great job. The Eldorado kids hung in there. Really, the game comes down to they make a free throw, we don’t make a free throw. That’s basketball.”

Said Eldorado coach Mike Hutson: “I think we got a couple of bounces that went our way. Good teams when they don’t play very well find a way to make plays. Both teams – I told Coach McIntyre I thought he was one of the best coaches I’ve ever seen at this level because he gets his kids to do things that throw you off. Both teams played really well and had opportunities.

“I thought we were taking the ball out of the peach basket every possession. I know it was an ugly game to watch, but it was a helluva game to coach. “

Megan Muniz had two three-point shots in the closing 10 seconds that could have sent the game into overtime. The first was slightly off to the right and ended up out of bounds, giving Rio Rancho one more shot; the second was just long, hitting the heel of the rim and leaving Muniz on the floor, weeping.

“The ball was in the right kid’s hands,” McIntyre said. “Megan’s had a terrific year. They just didn’t go in today. “

Said Hutson: “Holding Megan Muniz to seven points – that’s huge. We got outrebounded and probably got outplayed in a lot of facets of the game, but defensively we did a fantastic job. We made plays when we had to.

“We switched some people through. We played Sara Schwantes on her early, Natalie (Kane) played her, Nicole Hunnicutt played her a little bit. That was our strategy going in. We knew we had to make her work for everything. “

After taking a 14-11 lead at halftime by closing with a 5-0 run, Muniz hit a trey with 7:26 left in the third quarter to build up a six-point lead. The Rams didn’t score the rest of the period, however, and Eldorado pulled within one Britteny Brown’s basket off a steal with 3:37 left in the period. Amazingly, neither team scored in the rest of the quarter.

Eldorado gained an early lead in the final period on Channel Sedberry’s inside basket with 7:34 left in the game, but the Rams broke their 8:04 drought on a backdoor basket by Tracy Fosterling of a nice assist from Muniz. A basket and free throw on subsequent possessions by Shelby Pendley gave the Rams a three-point advantage, at 22-19.

Eldorado used four straight free throws to regain the lead, but Fosterling gave Rio Rancho the advantage with an inside basket with 4:31 left. Two free throws by EHS’s Nicole Hunnicutt gave the Eagles the lead again with 3:55 again, but Muniz made two charity shots after an exchange of turnovers for what turned out to be the final RRHS points of the season.

“I think the story of the game was Eldorado was 7-of-40 for the game (shooting),” McIntyre said. “Too many people want to see the 80 and 90 point games. I love defense and our kids played some great defense. The Eldorado kids played equally good defense.

“This entire year we’ve had trouble scoring. Offensively maybe some of the players were a little bit challenged in terms of scoring. But Eldorado might turn around Saturday and score 70. They’re a prolific scoring team and we took them out of their game.”

But the same could be said of Eldorado’s defense.

“It’s just a real credit to our kids and (assistant coach) Lonnie Neal,” Hutson said. “He preaches defense even when we’re practicing offense. Give him a lot of credit, because he pushes the kids to get better defensively.  In a game like this in the state tournament you’ve got to really play a solid game defensively.

“When you get outrebounded like we did and we didn’t shoot very well, you’ve got to play solid defense.”
The first half featured almost twice as many fouls (15) than made baskets. But when Rio Rancho guard Muniz scored her only two points on two free throws with 49.3 seconds left in the half, the Rams had their biggest lead of the afternoon.

Ashley Rhoades had seven points in the first half, and her rebound of a missed Fosterling shot from the corner was the only basket in a 6-0 RRHS run over the last 3:49 of the second quarter that rallied the Rams from a three-point deficit to a three-point lead. The rest of the points came on free throws as Rio Rancho achieved the one-and-one bonus on Eldorado's seventh team foul with 3:17 in the period. The Rams, meanwhile, had only six team fouls in the first half.

After having tremendous difficulty with the EHS press in the opening quarter, Rio Rancho had just four turnovers in the second period compared to six for the Eagles. Rio Rancho was shooting 25 percent from the field (4 of 16) compared to Eldorado (4 of 20) and was dominating on the boards with a 23-12 edge at intermission.

Rio Rancho and Eldorado struggled to a 5-5 tie after the opening quarter in a period where neither team did a good job shooting or holding on to the ball. The Rams made 2 of 8 shots (25 percent) in the opening eight minutes, while Eldorado was just 1 of 12 (8 percent). The Rams had 10 turnovers in the opening period, Eldorado 5.

“I don’t know how we were only down 14-11 at halftime,” Hutson said. “You look at the stats. We forced 27 turnovers and that’s probably the game right there. They had a hard time with our defense all night.”

PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH STATISTICS, PHOTOS.