La Cueva, on fire early, cruises to Phil Griego title

You couldn’t have scripted a much better first quarter than the one La Cueva had in the finals of the Phil Griego Invitational on Saturday.

The Bears raced out to a 24-4 lead and cruised from there to a 75-62 victory over Cleveland on the Storm’s home court in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score. La Cueva (6-0) led by as many as 25 and no less than 13 the rest of the way as it snuffed out every rally attempt by the Storm (4-1) before they could really gain any momentum. A year ago, the Bears started 0-4, so there’s a much better vibe around the squad early in the season this time around.

“I think it shows that we're a force to be reckoned with,” said La Cueva coach Eric Orell. “We’re going to hit adversity. Every team does. But it's nice to start this year the way we have as opposed to last year. I think it's going to give us a lot of confidence going into the second semester.”

The Bears reached their first double-digit lead at 12-2 with 3 minutes, 50 seconds to play in the opening period and never looked back. Senior guard Tony Trujillo was the catalyst, as he scored 12 of his 14 points in that early push.

“Just relax, trust the process that we put in,” Trujillo said of his team’s mindset. “We work really hard in practice. Defensive drills, rebounding drills, we go hard. It's like football out there, almost. Just trust in the process, trust in the work, and just relax and do what we do.”

While La Cueva found plenty of transition opportunities, Cleveland was frustrated early. Case in point: Storm guard Remy Albrecht was called for a technical foul in the first quarter after voicing his displeasure with a charging call. While Albrecht would ultimately finish with a game-high 31 points after a scoreless opening period, it wasn’t enough to pull his team out of the early hole.

“(Albrecht is) really good,” Orell said. “We just needed to make it hard for him. He was going to get his. And I think we did a decent job in the first half. I think we could have done a better job in the second half, but he's hard to guard.”

If there was any concern that the Bears might let up after building an early lead, Hunter Butler helped ensure that wouldn’t happen. The senior forward poured in 17 of his 26 points after halftime, including several dunks in those aforementioned transition opportunities. Butler’s efforts over the three days helped earn him tournament MVP honors.

“Yesterday in our game (against Santa Fe), we let up a little bit, and we let it be closer than it should have been,” Butler said. “And coach was on us, so we knew it couldn't happen again.”

Drew Bramlett chipped in 11 points and Payton Fuller added 10 for La Cueva. Albrecht was the only player to reach double figures in scoring for Cleveland.

Joe Armijo Classic

At the Joe Armijo Classic at Albuquerque Academy, Sandia won the girls title, beating Las Cruces 47-35. Mayfield edged Centennial 57-55 to capture the boys championship.