GRANTS, N.M. District 5 4A boy’s basketball is not just another district, it is currently the most challenging district in 4A with 3 teams in the top 10 and 2 in the top 16 including the Pirates who currently are landing on the 16th spot.
According to the maxpreps. com high school rankings,
Highland at 20-4, 6-0 comes in ranked 1 in the state and Valencia at 1410, 2-4 are ranked 7th followed by Belen ranked 8th with a record of 1410, 4-2. St. Pius has a record of 10-13, 3-4 is ranked 12th and the Pirates currently ranked 16th with a record of 1114, 1-6. “Our district is tough night in and night out,” said GHS boys head basketball coach Landon Chavez.
Commenting on the most recent games, starting with St. Pius on February 10 where they lost 75-64 on the road Chavez said, “St. Pius jumped out to a quick lead and we did a good job of weathering the storm but ultimately closed it out with a 72-64 win.” In that game the Sartans outscored the Pirates 18-16 in the first quarter and 16-14 in the second quarter to lead at the half 34-30. In the third quarter the Sartans outscored the Pirates 21-16 and only the fourth quarter did the Pirates outscore the Sartans 18-16.
In that game Coudy Melonas and Daniel Garcia led the Pirates in scoring with 15 apiece and Elijah Marquez had 13 points.
In the subsequent game on February 13th the Pirates faced off with Highland and lost that contest by a score of 7661. “They build a big lead early and our guys fought hard to climb back into it,” said GHS Chavez. “We closed the gap to 15, which was a positive–as other teams in our district have lost by 20 or more.”
High scorers for the Pirates were Elijah Marquez and Cardenio Chavez with 13 points apiece, Daniel Garcia with 10 points and Coudy Melonas with 9 points.
Next up for the Pirates will be Belen.
“Looking ahead, Belen is a great opportunity for us to boost our ranking,” said Chavez.