Volcano Vista, Cleveland set for 5A championship showdown

One more time ‚ one final time — the stage is turned over to Volcano Vista and Cleveland.

But just barely.

The combatants in the metro final, the top two teams from the state’s toughest district, and the two top seeds in this year’s Class 5A boys state basketball tournament, the Hawks and Storm are set to hash out the finale to the 2025-26 season.

District 1-5A rivals Volcano Vista (25-5) and Cleveland (26-6) meet at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Pit following semifinal victories on Thursday.

The Storm survived in overtime in the late game against Sandia, while the Hawks, now just a single win from a mind-boggling fifth consecutive championship, ousted La Cueva in the afternoon.

Saturday will mark the sixth meeting this season between Volcano and Cleveland. The Hawks have won three of the first five, including the last two.

No. 2 CLEVELAND 66, No. 6 SANDIA 60 (OT): It was an unlikely source, 6-foot-5 sophomore wing Jordan Rivera, who provided the eventual game-winning shot for the Storm.

He buried a corner 3-pointer 14 seconds into overtime, and Cleveland scored the first nine in OT. Rivera had a team-high 19 points, the second-highest point total of his season.

“Seems like every game, we have a guy who steps up. Tonight was Jordan Rivera’s night,” Storm coach Zack Cole said.

Said Rivera: “You know, my confidence has been shaky the last few games. (But) I found it tonight.”

Cleveland is appearing in the state final for the first time since the pandemic-shortened 2021 season.

Sandia (22-10) went the final 3:40 in regulation without a point after leading the game 57-53, and the Matadors nearly went the entire four-minute overtime scoreless, until a last-second 3-pointer.

The Matadors received a gargantuan performance from sophomore guard Gad Harris, who just about literally put this team on his back for a lengthy stretch of the second half with guards Isaiah Brown (ankle) and Malachi Knox (hand) both out of the game with injuries.

Harris finished with 29 points on 8-of-13 shooting.

“That’s what he does, who he is,” Sandia coach Danny Brown said.

The Matadors turned the ball over with 1:20 to go, leading to a game-tying layup from Noah Valler.

Sandia had the ball with 1:14 to go, and played for a final shot. But Harris was called for a five-second violation with 10.6 seconds left — a call Brown said was inaccurate — and Cleveland got the ball. But the Storm never really got a decent shot off, and the team went to overtime.

Valler followed Rivera’s 3 with a layup for a 62-57 lead in the first 40 seconds of OT.

“Lot of guts, lot of grit, lot of guys trusting each other,” Cole said. “We we want to reach our ultimate goal, we have to trust each other.”

Rivera also led Cleveland with 10 rebounds. Ajay Vigil added 14 points. Brycen Bowie scored 11. Senior guard Remy Albrecht, the Storm’s leading scorer, didn’t find the scoring column until the second half. He finished with nine points and seven rebounds.

Lavondrick Hogues had 13 points for Sandia, George Smith 11 and six rebounds.

Sandia lost in overtime for the second consecutive year in the postseason, after falling in the state final a year ago to Volcano Vista.

There were nine lead changes and 11 ties in a consistently entertaining game.

No. 1 VOLCANO VISTA 49, No. 4 LA CUEVA 42: The Hawks’ 19th straight playoff victory was similar to plenty that came before over the last five seasons, as Volcano Vista grinded out one of its patented defensive gems.

“That was the most beautiful, ugly game,” Volcano coach Greg Brown said.

The Hawks (25-5), with an early offensive spark from guard Luis Gonzales, led almost the entire way. Gonzales was the best player on the floor in the opening minutes, and scored Volcano’s last nine points of the opening quarter and a 15-12 Volcano Vista lead.

“He definitely gave them a jolt,” La Cueva coach Eric Orell said.

Finley Fitak, with a 3-pointer, and a dunk by David Lunn, followed by a mid-range jumper from Gonzales, sent the Hawks to a 24-17 lead late in the first half.

“Luis is the ultimate teammate,” Brown said. “He sacrifices a lot for his teammates.”

Lunn, a whirling dervish of a 6-foot-4 junior guard, began to get going after halftime, with back-to-back drives and finishes. One of them was a three-point play, as Volcano Vista – avenging an early, regular-season home loss to La Cueva – extended to a 10-point lead at 37-27 late in the third quarter.

“This one meant a lot to us,” said Lunn, who scored a team-best 24 points, half coming from the free-throw line. “{We’re not the same team we were earlier in the year.”

Volcano Vista literally sealed the game at the line, because the Hawks scored all their fourth-quarter points from the stripe.

To that end, Volcano Vista was 19-for-29 from the line. The Bears were 8-for-12.

“We’re physical, they’re physical,” Orell said, noting the disparity on the stat sheet. “We shoot 12. … We battled. We knew it was gonna be physical.”

For La Cueva (24-7), it was its third-lowest scoring game of the season.

A day earlier in the quarterfinals, Volcano Vista held Las Cruces to 37 points, the Bulldawgs’ lowest output of the season.

The Hawks already own the modern record for consecutive state championships (four). They have the chance to inch closer to New Mexico’s overall record of six in a row, shared by two Albuquerque private schools, Academy (1989-94) and Hope Christian (2013-18).

“Every year is its own year, and for these guys to come together … it’s pretty special,” Brown said.

Hunter Butler led the Bears with 17 points and eight rebounds. The Hawks were pleased at how they shut down guard Tony Trujillo, who had just four.

Gonzales finished with 16 points for Volcano Vista.

“He’s been able to do this and his time is finally here,” Lunn said.