4A boys: Highland staves off Artesia rally for title

Highland and Artesia had seen this scene before.

Just a year ago, the basketball teams met in the Class 4A boys state championship game, with the Bulldogs winning.

But the top-seeded Hornets (27-4) got their revenge Saturday at the Pit, stymying a late Artesia (25-9) rally to win 71-62, earning their third blue trophy in the last five years. Highland won its last 20 games and set a school record for wins.

The Hornets used a fairly simple, but effective philosophy.

“We had to (keep being) aggressive,” Highland coach Justin Woody said. “We wanted to be aggressive on both sides of the ball and not give them any room to breathe offensively or defensively. We had to just keep attacking.”

And that worked to perfection in the first half as the Hornets built a 36-19 lead at the break.

At that point, Hornets guard Juan Limas already had 14 points, but he would go scoreless in the second half as he battled foul issues. The Hornets had hit five 3-pointers and were taking it to the taller and rugged Bulldogs on the boards, 21-15, so everything looked smooth for Highland.

But after Lenyn French hit a 3-pointer for Highland to open the third quarter, pushing the lead to 20, Artesia started to snip away at the lead with small bursts that the Hornets did well to contain with some timely offense.

“They did a good job of when we made those runs, of just hitting shots,” Artesia coach Michael Mondragon said. “They were the guys we were wanting to take those shots so you have to give them credit.”

Indeed, credit goes to wing Fede Nuñez, who finished with 17 points — 10 in the second half — and backup Hornets guard Treavon Carter, who was scoreless until the fourth quarter.

By that time, the Highland lead had shrunk to 50-46 and the Hornets were struggling to fill some minutes as both Limas and Nico Sanchez, who finished with 16 points, both sitting periodically with foul problems.

All Carter did was snuff Artesia’s comeback bid with a personal 7-0 run on two 3-pointers and a foul shot to make it 57-46 and the lead never fell below nine the rest of the way.

“I don’t know if they believe me or not, but I tell them to trust us,” coach Woody said. “Believe in the system. You never know when your number is going to be called. Treavon was amazing tonight, so proud of him. This was his best game of the season. So we just always have to be ready.”

Artesia’s 6-foot-8 big man Clay Kincaid, who battled with Highland post Jerry Woody throughout the game, finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Charlie Campbell had 17 and Braylon Vega added 13 for the Bulldogs. Artesia handily won the second-half board battle, 25-12.

But Highland proved to be just a bit too deep.

“We work out 11 months out of the year so I always tell them if you want to be great at anything, whether that’s school, basketball, being a husband, being a brother, a son, whatever it is, you have to put everything into it,” coach Woody said. “It’s a lot of hard work, but state championships are not won on March 14. It’s an 11-month grind of getting better every single day, whether that’s individually or as a team. You just have to have that kind of mindset that I’m going to be better tomorrow than I am today.”