Girls metro final: Hobbs swarms Kirtland Central

Flying high, indeed.

The Hobbs Eagles girls basketball team didn’t just win the Albuquerque Metro Championships on Saturday, they won the tournament in emphatic fashion, stomping one of New Mexico’s best teams to claim the metro’s humongous first-place trophy.

Hobbs, the No. 2-ranked team in Class 5A, steamrolled 4A No. 2 Kirtland Central 83-49 in front of a packed house at La Cueva.

And the Sandia Matadors, who weren’t even in this game, somehow came into the picture, anyway, when Eagles coach Joe Carpenter said he heard some announcers from Albuquerque describing Sandia as the clear-cut No. 1 team in Class 5A. The Matadors are that, by the rankings.

But Hobbs’ strong showing this week at metros had Carpenter saying this afterward:

“(If) we believe that (Sandia is No. 1), we’re gonna work every day to prove people wrong,” he said.

The Eagles have won 16 games in a row after losing to Sandia on opening day. They were the better, smoother, more well-rounded and experienced team Saturday.

Freshman Allyson Tsosie kept the Broncos (10-2) in this game for a quarter-plus; she had all of Kirtland’s 15 points in the first quarter, a period that ended with Hobbs scoring the final six for a 22-15 lead.

“I didn’t realize she was that good,” Carpenter said of Tsosie.

At 22-17, Hobbs went on a lengthy 15-0 run that ate up 4½ minutes of clock, a run that pretty much decided the game. Bhret Clay and Brynn Hargrove poured in 3-pointers to start the run, post Kyndle Cunningham hit two buckets, and Clay scored the final five of the run.

“The scoreboard starting cha-chinging for us,” Carpenter said.

It was 37-17 for the Eagles, who never led by fewer than 13 the rest of the way against a young Kirtland Central lineup that didn’t look nearly as sharp as it did the night before in a semifinal upset of Sandia.

“I think we hadn’t put a good four quarters together this whole tournament,” said Cunningham, who finished with 15 points. “So I think we wanted to just come out and play four good quarters instead of just one or two.”

Clay was outstanding throughout. She led all scorers with 25 points.

“Honestly, we’ve all just been playing together for a long time. We have really good chemistry and our best ball is when everyone touches the ball,” Clay said. “We were just letting our defense drive our offense. In our mind, we were down 10 the whole game.”

Carpenter said every piston was firing.

“We were hitting shots, hitting the boards pretty good, and we were taking care of the ball,” he said. “I can’t complain.”

And now Hobbs gets ready to start district play, where the Eagles are an overwhelming favorite to run the table leading into March.

“We’re getting into our best basketball right now, which is the perfect time,” Clay said. “We’re excited for the rest of the season.”

Tsosie’s 15 points led the Broncos.

Moments from the girls Albuquerque Metro Championship game