Volcano Vista looks fantastic (to say the least) in rout of Cleveland

RIO RANCHO — We interrupt this high school boys basketball season for the following news bulletin directed toward the entirety of Class 5A:

It appears that Volcano Vista has figured things out.

The multiple dramas of the metro tournament earlier this month, in which the Hawks had three extremely close calls, are a (very) distant memory. So distant, they almost seem to have come in a season entirely different from the one currently being played.

Consider the brand of basketball the three-time defending state champions have fashioned during a five-game stretch leading into the Hawks’ District 1-5A road game Thursday night at Cleveland.

Volcano Vista won by 53, by 38, by 50, by 45, by 22. That is an average of 41.6 points per victory.

And then the Hawks managed to win by even more than that average — and against the team ranked No. 4 in the state.

No. 1 Volcano Vista, surging toward February with incredible energy and performing at a phenomenally high level, thrashed Cleveland every which way, 87-45, on Thursday night.

“We’re getting to the level we want to get to,” senior guard Rian Gonzales said. He scored 15 points, all on 3-pointers.

Not sure how much higher a level Volcano Vista (18-2, 4-0 in 1-5A) could achieve.

The Hawks in the middle two quarters gave off the vibe of a predator playing with its food, as Volcano Vista outscored Cleveland 52-22 in the second and third quarters.

The Hawks pulled their starters with six minutes remaining, and this was that extremely rare 42-point win that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, seeing as how the Storm (14-6, 3-1) scored the final seven points of the game in the last minute.

“We’re just finding our dawg, that mentality,” said the Hawks’ other senior guard, Hudson Brown, who scored 14 points. “We thought we weren’t playing our best coming back from Arizona (where the Hawks lost their only two games, to Southern California powers). Now we’re finding ourselves and our groove, really, and playing harder. Playing harder on the defensive end.”

Volcano Vista — which had seven games in 10 days if you include its trip to Arizona and metros, when the Hawks clearly were a bit fatigued — is surrendering just 37.6 points per game during this six-game stretch.

All the numbers worked in the Hawks’ favor Thursday. They shot 47% (11-of-23) from beyond the arc and 64% (33-of-51) overall from the field.

“This is a good night for us,” Brown said, adding, “But we’re not where we want to be.”

“We’re getting close,” Gonzales said.

Senior forward Kenyon Aguino led the Hawks with 26 points and eight assists. David Lunn added 19 points. Those two combined to go 17-of-22 from the floor.

“We were locked in, ready to go,” Volcano Vista coach Greg Brown said. “Good team effort.”

Remy Albrecht had a team-best 16 points for Cleveland, which is the only New Mexico team over the last three seasons to beat Volcano Vista.

Perhaps cognizant of that, the Hawks were brilliant most of the way, running the floor, raining down 3-pointers all over the Storm’s collective head, fast-breaking, dunking, ally-ooping and generally just imposing their will on a Cleveland team helpless to stop the onslaught.

“We’re still motivated,” coach Brown said. “That’s the thing. We’re still motivated to get better.”