Staff Report
Chaves County Sports Report
It's quite simple, really. Saturday night, the Coyotes came to play.
In the District 4AAAA title game, Roswell crushed Artesia 85-36 in a game that was never in doubt.
“For the kids to step up and play that way in a district championship game, they’re winners, and they came out to win,” said Coyote coach Britt Cooper.
Roswell won the tip and Marek Olesinski hit a 3-pointer right out of the gate. Three different players hit treys in the first stanza for Roswell: Olesinski, Deyton DeLaCerda and Robert Orona.
When DeLaCerda picked up his second foul with 4:23 left in the quarter, Orona came in and put up five points. By the time the smoke had cleared from the hot hands of the Coyotes, Roswell led 25-13 after one.
The Bulldogs struck first in the second but would only manage 11 points to the Coyotes’ 21.
Matthew Singleton put in back-to-back baskets, Chris Lopez busted a trey and Keydrick Allen scored his first points of the game when he got the basket and the foul with 3:40 left in the half.
Allen would then steal the ball and take it the distance with 0:47 left in quarter to give Roswell a 46-24 lead.
The third and fourth quarters belonged to the Coyotes, as they outscored Artesia 39-12, allowing the Bulldogs only four of those 12 points in the fourth quarter.
AJ Peralta, who only had eight first-half points, put on a clinic, scoring 10 in the third including eight in a row and a dunk.
Peralta scored the first basket of the half, then put down a dunk. Artesia responded with a basket by Koby Caton but then the Coyotes put up 10 unanswered points before Caton made 1-of-2 from the line with 4:57 left in the third.
Roswell had another 8-0 run before Artesia closed out the quarter with a trey, putting the Coyotes up 71-32.
With the clock running under the mercy rule, Roswell opened the fourth with a 10-0 run. The ’Dogs got their first points on a pair of free throws by Josh Houghtaling with 3:23 left, making it 81-34 before Roswell stuffed in two final points then let the clock run out.
“They weren’t going to let up this time, and we did some different things defensively,” Cooper said.
“Defensively, we ran a lot of different set on ’em. We were very unpredictable with it and I think we threw them off guard. I was pleased with our defensive effort, certainly after we got going. First quarter, we were a little shaky at parts, but once we got into a rhythm it was pretty well decided.”
Even though the Bulldogs had a big comeback in their last game in Roswell, Artesia coach Isidro Montoya knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“No. I just thought we had to play good in all phases of the game,” he said. “Roswell’s a very talented team and you’ve got to play near-perfect basketball to stay with them. They just beat us in every phase of the game tonight. They came out ready to go and we didn’t match that intensity and they put it to us.”
Peralta and Olesinski both finished with 20 points, Olesinski with 14 first half points and Peralta 12 second-half points.
Lopez and Allen both had 11.
Kevin Chandler was high for Artesia with nine, while Zeke Montoya had eight, all in the first quarter.
Both teams will now wait for Sunday’s seeding announcement to see who they play next.
“We know we’re going to be in the tournament,” coach Montoya said. “We just don’t know where we’re going. I’m sure we’ll be traveling. We probably didn’t win enough games to host a first-round game but that’s OK. We’re ready to go and we feel like we match up pretty well with most of the teams in the state.”
As they have been all year, Roswell is expected to be No. 1.
“If they don’t put us No. 1 it’ll be the biggest farce I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how they could not put us No. 1,” Cooper said.
Both teams will play March 6 at times to be determined — Roswell will host whoever their opponent is — and another effort like Saturday will put the Coyotes in Albuquerque March 10.
“It was a total team effort,” Cooper said. “We got a lot of people involved. It was just a great team effort. It’s what you like to see, and I told these guys, when you spread the wealth, we’re a lot better.”
For more sports news, go to Chaves County Sports Report