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Thursday, February 7, 2008

Pintos: 'We Just Didn't Finish It'

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
    The Moriarty High boys basketball team was this close— kindly hold your thumb and index finger about an inch apart.
    But close, as the saying goes, counts only in horseshoes and hand grenades.
    The visiting Pintos twice were within one point of District 5-4A foe Del Norte in the second half of their game on Friday night. The Knights (2-18, 1-3) eventually won 76-67.
    "We just didn't finish it," Moriarty coach Frank Gonzalez said.
    After trailing 39-20 at the half, Moriarty's Corey Bond got a layup with 21/2 minutes left in the third quarter to narrow the gap to 44-43.
    But Del Norte's Nico DeLaCruz responded with three 3-pointers to help the Knights take a 53-46 lead at the end of the period. DeLaCruz sank the treys at 2:15, 1:30 and the 30-second marks.
    Del Norte's McCoy Martinez hit another 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter to give his team a 56-46 advantage.
    "When they hit those 3s, it wasn't so much that it deflated us as it was that it motivated them," Gonzalez said. "They kind of relaxed after they hit those 3s."
    Still, Moriarty continued to work. Pintos senior Ben Gonzales, who had a team-high 14 points, canned a free throw and followed that with a hustling putback with 4:45 left in the final stanza to shrink the Knights' advantage to 57-56.
    Gonzales, a star football running back and baseball pitcher and outfielder, has his hoops legs under him now.
    "Finally," he said. "We just started out too slow in this game."
    Moriarty turnovers, the departure of Pinto Kyle Wolf with five fouls at 3:12 of the fourth, and a resulting traditional 3-point play by Del Norte's Reggie Stamps helped push the Knights' lead back up to 66-56.
    "The calls weren't too bad," said Wolf, a senior. "At least they were even. But they did call it a little close in the first quarter. I think it's just that we need to play as hard as we can from the very beginning."
    For the Pintos, it was a tough-to-take loss against a team they were capable of beating.
    "I guess I didn't have them prepared well enough," Gonzalez said. "If I'd prepared them better for the first half, maybe it would've been different. That's my job to prep them, and I guess I didn't. I don't blame the players."
    Besides Gonzales, the other Moriarty point producers were Wolf (11), Marcos Villanueva (10), Bond (nine), Ricky Snodgrass (nine), Pat Corr (eight), Carlos Batts (four) and Taylor Allcorn (two).
    In other district action, second-ranked St. Pius (16-4, 4-1) sailed past the Pintos 71-50 on Tuesday night in John B. Salvo Gym. Moriarty dropped to 3-18, 0-5.
    Snodgrass scored 11 points versus the Sartans.
   
Moriarty girls
    No. 1 St. Pius defeated the third-ranked Lady Pintos 55-51 in overtime for a district victory in the Sartans' St. Sebastian Gym on Tuesday.
    After a Moriarty timeout— with the ball in the Pintos' possession and the score tied at 44 with 6.9 seconds remaining in regulation— Sartan Courtney Tinnin disrupted the sideline inbounds pass to force the game into overtime.
    The end was nigh when Moriarty's Kristin Valencia, who had 16 points, fouled out with 2:17 remaining in the extra period.
    "We didn't take care of the ball," Pintos coach Joe Bailey said. "That comes back to the coach. I've got to prepare them better for the press."
    Moriarty's Brandi Valencia was on fire at the outset, scoring 10 of her game-high 18 points in the first quarter. The Pintos (18-2, 4-1) had a 15-9 cushion after the first eight minutes.
    But Pius outscored the Pintos 27-18 in the middle quarters.
    Audrey Dettwiller's lucky 3-pointer, which banged hard off the glass with four seconds left in the third, gave Pius (19-1, 5-0) a 36-33 lead. Detwiller paced the Sartans with 13 points.
    "They're a good team," said Moriarty senior Hilliary Sheckler. "But I think we can beat them. We just have to correct our mistakes."
   
   
    Pintos hoops
    Next Up:
   

Moriarty girls host Albuquerque Academy, Friday, 7 p.m.
   

Moriarty boys at Academy, Friday, 7 p.m.