4A-1A girls playoffs: No. 13 Legacy Academy pulls off huge upset in first round

Hope Christian posted a minor upset in the Class 4A bracket. But the most surprising upset winner on Friday in the non-Class 5A girls state tournament basketball brackets was another team from Albuquerque.

That would be Legacy Academy, a 13 seed in the 2A bracket, which took out Jemez Valley, 61-49.

Hope and Legacy joined the following metro-area schools in Week 2 of the playoffs: Albuquerque Academy, Valencia and St. Pius.

All four of the No. 9 seeds in Classes 4A-1A, including Hope Christian, won on the road Friday.

CLASS 4A: At St. Pius, the sixth-seeded Sartans (19-8) saw Mikaela Trujillo score eight points — including a pair of 3-pointers — during a 12-4 run to open the third quarter as St. Pius broke open a close game with Pojoaque Valley and pulled away from the Elkettes (19-11) in a 58-41 victory.

Macy Freeze led the way with a game-high 18 points, and St. Pius led by double-digits for the majority of the second half.

“I think both teams really just came out to fight,” said St. Pius coach Bree Rode. “My team didn’t stop fighting, so I’m really proud of my girls for just having tenacity because it just came down to heart and extra plays and getting rebounds and playing in-your-face defense.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Sartans. With St. Pius up 18-13 in the second quarter, Freeze had her shot blocked near the basket, and the ball went out of bounds to the Elkettes. Rode, who disagreed with the call, stormed out to midcourt and received a technical. That sparked an 8-2 run for Pojoaque — with all of the points coming from GG Romero to give her team a 21-20 edge late in the half. It was the only lead of the evening for the Elkettes.

In the meantime, Rode stepped outside the gym for a few minutes to compose herself.

“Usually I’m not that worked up, but I just felt like that was just kinda way out there,” Rode said. “… I’m dealing with some health stuff, so I really probably should’ve calmed down prior to that. I just had to make sure I was good before I came back in here. The cool part about that is that I have really amazing coaching staff, and my girls are locked in.”

To prove Rode’s point, the Sartans closed out the half on a 7-0 run to take a 27-21 lead into halftime and continued to apply pressure from there.

– Tristen Critchfield

No. 4 VALENCIA 59, No. 13 HIGHLAND 33: In Tomé, the Jaguars (24-7) turned a slim edge at halftime into a blowout as Valencia beat the Hornets (14-15) for the fourth time this season.

Breanna Payton’s 3-pointer for Highland pulled the Hornets to within six points midway through the third quarter, but that was as close as Highland would get.

A blocked shot by Eden Montgomery led to a fast break-bucket for the sophomore forward, who followed that with another layup, plus a 3 on her way to a game-high 16 points.

“Eden had an unbelievable game,” said Valencia coach Raymond Montoya. “She really came out of her shell and changed the game.”

The momentum that ended the third quarter for Valencia continued the rest of the game. All-state guard Jadyn Montoya, with 14 points, did much of the damage late.

Valencia next faces Albuquerque Academy at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

– Mike Powers, Valencia County News-Bulletin

No. 5 ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY 48, No. 12 SILVER 39: At the Academy, Addie Spratley had a team-best 16 points as the Chargers (24-4) advanced for a rare Week 2 appearance at the Pit. Harlow Schow added 11 points for Academy.

Also in 4A … No. 9 Hope Christian (18-11) was down 11 points to eighth-seeded Lovington (16-13) after three quarters, but staged a furious comeback and stunned the Wildcats 48-44 in Lovington. Bri Bishop had 13 points, Mia Bishop and Ava Dickenson 11 apiece for the Huskies who face Kirtland Central next. … In Kirtland, the top-seeded Broncos (26-3), coming off a rare loss, blew out No. 16 Goddard 68-23. … In Gallup, the second-seeded Bengals (27-2) had an equally easy time of things, whipping 15th-seeded Artesia 71-35.

CLASS 2A: It had been only six days earlier that Jemez Valley, seeded fourth at state, squashed Legacy Academy by 28 points in their district tournament.

But the Silverbacks got some major payback on the road Friday. Eighth-grader Eden Griffis had 22 points and 14 rebounds (11 of them offensive boards) for Legacy (20-8), which benefited from the return of Briley Boll, who missed the previous game against the Warriors (24-5). Boll recorded 17 rebounds Friday.

No. 9 Laguna-Acoma and No. 11 Mescalero Apache joined the Silverbacks as upset winners in the 2A bracket. The Hawks defeated No. 8 Questa 53-49, while the Chiefs took out sixth-seeded Texico 49-44.

CLASS 3A: Two lower seeds, No. 9 Crownpoint and No. 11 Cobre, also registered upsets Friday. Crownpoint beat district rival Wingate 52-48, while the Indians were 79-71 winners against No. 6 Thoreau.

The top four seeds — Navajo Prep, West Las Vegas, Santa Fe Indian and Robertson — won by a combined 134 points.

CLASS 1A: Springer was the lone upset winner, 66-64 over eighth-seeded Des Moines. Of the seven higher-seeded teams that won, two — No. 4 Quemado and No. 7 Corona/Vaughn — were pushed the most.

Quemado edged rival Reserve 52-46, while Corona/Vaughn defeated No. 10 Logan 61-57.

The top two seeds, undefeated No. 1 Roy/Mosquero, and No. 2 Fort Sumner/House, each rolled to first-round victories. For Corona/Vaughn, 6-6 sophomore Harper Dunn had a triple double: 26 points, 27 rebounds and 11 blocked shots.