Here are the Albuquerque Journal's 2024-25 All-Metro basketball teams

Ballers, one and all.

The 2024-25 Albuquerque Journal All-Metro Basketball teams are in this space, with what I would describe as a colorful mix of first-team and second-team selections.

Let’s give them their due.

2024-25 boys all-metro basketball team

Boys

Kenyon Aguino’s greatness was unparalleled in a four-year career at Volcano Vista. It was capped just a couple of weeks ago with a third — THIRD! — Gatorade New Mexico Player of the Year award.

The 6-foot-7 senior forward averaged 20 points, 12 points and five assists for the Hawks, who last month won their fourth Class 5A title in a row. Aguino signed with Montana, that’s where we can next observe him.

His is the name most obviously deserving of top billing on our All-Metro team.

But Aguino’s running mate, 6-5 sophomore forward David Lunn, gave Volcano Vista a riveting, and potent 1-2 combination, and together these two were often a wonder to behold. Lunn, like Kenyon, seems destined to be a Division I signee, and he also is on the AJ's first team after averaging 17 points and five rebounds and authoring countless above-the-rim highlights.

The team that came so close to toppling the Volcano dynasty also has two players on the first team.

The play, the one snapshot that most stands out to me from the boys basketball season was 6-7 senior guard Zaire Ndyabagye (the ‘N” is silent), on a two-on-one break inside Santa Fe High’s gym for a key February district game. The lengthy Sandia Matador threw down a wicked tomahawk dunk. (I bring this up only because I remember asking Sandia coach Danny Brown after the game about the dearth of college looks for this young man, and Danny said somebody better jump on the train quick, because they’d be getting a “monster.”)

No guard in Class 5A boys basketball, to me, was as versatile or as dynamic as Ndyabagye. He could shoot, he could drive, and oh man could he finish. For the season, he averaged 15.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.3 seasons.

The District 2-5A player of the year, 6-3 guard Thomas Adams of Sandia, is also on the AJ’s first team. Adams was a dependable rock and did everything well for the Matadors. His final stat line: 12.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.2 apg, and shot 66% on 2-point field goal attempts. He, like just about all Sandia players, was always a threat from beyond the arc.

The last of our five first-teamers comes from Cleveland. Junior Remy Albrecht frequently had to carry this team; just recall that brilliant second half against Hobbs in their regular season game, a game in which he just about by himself, with a 47-point game, led the Storm to a come-from behind win. It is possible that this 5-10 guard, more than any other on our first or second team, was the most explosive at all three levels. He averaged 25.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.8 steals.

The Journal’s second team five are Atrisco Heritage 5-8 senior guard Latavious Morris (23 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 5 apg); Albuquerque Academy 6-4 senior forward Eli Dominguez (20.3 ppg, 6 rpg); St. Pius 6-3 senior forward Mason Montoya (13.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg); Cibola 5-10 sophomore guard Elijah Martinez (23.5 ppg, 4 apg, 2 spg); and Volcano Vista 6-3 senior guard Rian Gonzales (12 ppg, and 99 made 3-pointers for the Hawks).

2024-25 girls all-metro basketball team

Girls

Sandia’s Sydney Benally carried the girls banner in the metro area, and headlines our 2024-25 All-Metro team.

Benally, a 5-9 senior, averaged 20 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 3.2 steals per game. Benally exemplifies a player who excels at making others around her better and was the centerpiece for the Matadors in a second consecutive Class 5A state title last month.

Sandia’s dominance within the metro area was all-encompassing. The only team that beat the Matadors was 4A’s Kirtland Central.

It is no surprise that Sandia is heavily represented on the first team. Hope Giddings, another 5-9 guard who was teammates with Benally for four seasons, gets a first-team nod (12.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg), and so does Kaiyah Benally.

If you had watched this 5-5 freshman seize the stage in the state final against Hobbs, you’d have observed the formal passing of the torch from older sister to younger sister. Kaiyah’s numbers (9.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.5 apg, 3.1 spg) do not spring off the page, but you wouldn’t necessarily see that on a team with so many veterans.

But Kaiyah Benally was one of the best five girls in the metro area this season.

La Cueva 5-8 junior guard Jordyn Dyer (20.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 3.1 spg, 3.0 apg) was one of the state’s elite players. Actually, you’d be hard pressed to find a girl in New Mexico who did more for her team, other than maybe Sydney Benally, than Dyer did for the Bears. A speedy, versatile, athletic guard. Undefendable.

Our final first-teamer is Valencia 5-6 senior guard Jadyn Montoya (15.8 ppg, 4 rpg 2.6 apg). More than any Jaguar, Montoya steered this team on the floor and turned them into a legitimate 4A challenger, and they weren’t far from playing in the 4A championship game.

Our second-team selections are Albuquerque High 5-6 junior point guard Lailah Bouldin (14.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg), Sandia 5-9 senior guard Audri Wright (9 ppg, 4.1 apg, 3.2 spg), Rio Rancho 5-4 freshman guard Madi Martinez (16.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.4 apg, 3.2 spg), West Mesa senior guard Monique Sena (18.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg 3.9 spg) and AHS 5-6 eighth-grade guard Abby Pavia (13.6 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3.0 spg).