Rams say goodbye,Cleveland says hello to Smith

By Gary Herron
sports editor
Published on Friday, March 13, 2009 10:21 AM MDT

ALBUQUERQUE – Brian Smith’s four-year coaching stint at Rio Rancho High School and the Rams’ hopes for another state championship ended Saturday evening at La Cueva High School.

The fourth-seeded Bears (22-7) rallied for a 72-66 victory in the Round of 16 to advance into a state quarterfinal game Wednesday.

The 13th-seeded Rams (15-14), who rallied from a 20-point, first-half deficit to take the lead in the second half, came up short down the stretch and saw their season end at the hands of the Bears for the second year in a row; La Cueva beat the Rams 87-77 in a state quarterfinal game last March in The Pit.

Brian Smith watches the Rams for the final time at the RAC, at least while he's the head coach. Next season, he'll be watching the Rams as the first-year head coach of the Cleveland High Storm.

“I just think the difference in the game was we just didn’t execute on offense the way we needed to,” Smith said.

Connecting on only seven of their 33 shots from the field in the first half, the Rams – who beat the Bears in the regular season – opened the second half on an 11-0 run. Coupled with the seven points they’d scored to end the first half gave them a two-possession deficit, which they turned into a 43-38 lead after Nick Perro nailed a 3-pointer later in the period.

The Rams’ lead was five on several occasions, but shrank to one, 47-46, as the third period ended.

The Rams’ last lead was 56-54 with 4:51 to play; the Bears outscored those 18-8 in the time that remained.

“We had a lot of opportunities we let go,” he said. “I’m proud of the guys for coming back – it was a heck of a comeback, but you’ve got to give La Cueva credit. They stuck free throws when they needed to make free throws, they got big rebounds when they needed it.

“Offensively, in the first half we were stagnant. We couldn’t hit anything. I mean, seven for 33’s not very impressive,” he continued. “There’s no give up and there never has been in these guys all year.”

Lucas Archuleta led the Rams with 16 points, P.J. Horgan turned in his best performance of the season and had 15, and Jorel Johnson and Perro had 14 apiece.

Smith, with three District 1-5A titles to his credit in his four seasons at the helm, will be the varsity boys coach at Cleveland High next season.

La Cueva, the District 2-5A champion, moved on and beat Clovis 61-57 in the quarterfinals. In other quarterfinal games, top-seeded Manzano fell to its District 5-5A foe, Eldorado, 46-40, and the second-seeded Gallup Bengals were surprised by Las Cruces, 77-74, in overtime.

Then, in the semifinals Thursday,

In other Round of 16 games, Manzano beat 16th-seeded Cibols 67-54, Gallup whipped 15th-seeded Santa Fe 69-47, third-seeded Highland clobbered 14th-seeded Sandia 72-53, sixth-seeded Valley lost to visiting 11 seed Onate 59-54, seventh-seeded Las Cruces beat 10th-seeded Rio Grande 76-62, and ninth-seeded Eldorado pulled off a mild upset on the floor of the defending champion Hobbs Eagles, the 8 seed, 71-50.

Ram dunks: Smith said sophomores Horgan and Blake Swihart, plus freshman Kyle Quintana, will play for him at CHS next season. Remaining at RRHS will be seniors-to-be Jeric Magnant, Josh Walker, Zach Sanchez and Archuleta, as well as JV team members Cameron Bopp and Matt Dompreh, who will also be seniors next season.

… Archuleta,Johnson and Perro made the 12-member All-District team from RRHS.

 

Copyright © 2010 Rio Rancho Observer

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Reader Comments

The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of the Rio Rancho Observer.

GoStorm wrote on Mar 13, 2009 2:14 PM:

" Wow is all I have to say about the lack of support the Rams received for a State Championship game versus La Cueva. The only people that went to support the team were future Storm coaches! And the Rams cheer team and Band should be ashamed of themselves for not showing up - what a joke! I cannot wait for Cleveland High to open because Mr. Affentranger will make activities a priority for our kids. And hopefully the band director and cheer coach will have a responsibility to the Cleveland community to work together as ONE school. "

GoLobos wrote on Mar 15, 2009 9:56 AM:

" I totally agree, the support and intigration between athletics and academics, as well as coaches, admin, and teachers at RRHS is lacking. I cannot wait for CHS to open, it will put RRHS to shame. Please someone step up and finally come forward and say how poorly run athletics is run at RRHS, I'm sure Brian will not be the only leaving RRHS. "

LoboFan wrote on Mar 18, 2009 12:32 PM:

" Finally people are starting to take notice! As a school employee, I was embarrassed to see the lack of support our kids received at the state basketball tournament. No cheerleaders, are you kidding? And no pep band, why are those "coaches" given a choice to attend or not? They should be there or be fired, period. We need to act as one community, not individual groups. I hope people take notice next year when Cleveland opens - get ready for students to transfer to CHS because it will be great! Go Storm! "

RR Resident wrote on Mar 23, 2009 7:37 PM:

" If Cibola can get a large group of fans & students to their 2 games at the Star Center, why can't RRHS? "

Jane Darnell wrote on Mar 30, 2009 7:37 AM:

" Was the article referring to the boys? How about the support for the girls team! Maybe the fans who came got tired of watching the same seven players play, and not letting the bench play. Coach Mac, when the seven are not getting the job done as in the last game with La Cueva, don't you think it is time to do some coaching and substituting? "

TAXPAYER wrote on Mar 30, 2009 11:55 AM:

" The RRHS coaches (most) suck!!! the swimming "coach" is the biggest example that I point at when my child (a swimmer) needs to be reminded how adults can lack ethical structure, the coach talks on the cell phone during meets, has NO communication skills and uses the position to intimidate the team, good luck with the mass exodus. "

GoLobos wrote on Apr 2, 2009 1:31 PM:

" Hey Taxpayer - Why dont you go have a conversation with the swimming coach versus writing about her online? She is a good person and a good coach. She not only has been double placed with responsibility, she also has a family. It's parents and fans like you that drive good coaches away from high school sports. I know its much easier to write about people in the newspaper but the bottom line, its cowardly. "

Coward Catcher wrote on Apr 3, 2009 1:30 PM:

" Well said, "go lobos". All the people who write negative stuff here about people are cowards. If you're not, provide your name, phone number, etc.... so the people you are writing about can respond directly to you. The swim coach at RRHS is awesome and loved by kids. "

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