Kirtland Central Advances in 4A State Tournament; Broncos Set for Quarterfinal at The Pit
Story by Walter Dorman
The No. 1 seeded Kirtland Central Broncos opened the New Mexico State Basketball Championships with a strong performance Friday night, defeating the Goddard Rockets 61–40 to advance to the Class 4A quarterfinals.
Despite the comfortable margin, Kirtland Central Head Coach Manning said his team had to adjust early against a Goddard squad that was more athletic than expected.
“I thought overall our effort was pretty good,” Manning said. “Goddard came in and they were a lot more athletic than I realized. They kind of knocked us on our heels a little bit with their size, but our girls adjusted and I thought our effort and energy were really good tonight.”
As the top seed in the 4A bracket, the Broncos entered the tournament with expectations and pressure, but Fresquez felt his team handled the opening-round challenge well.
“When you’re in the state tournament and playing teams you’re not familiar with, it doesn’t matter how much film you watch — it’s about adjusting in the game,” Manning said. “We had to make some adjustments both offensively and defensively, but the girls didn’t back down. We just kept playing until we found what was going to be successful.”
Kirtland Central’s defense helped dictate the flow of the game, particularly when the Broncos increased their pressure in the second quarter.
“We decided to go full-court man-to-man there in the second quarter and we thought that gave them quite a bit of trouble,” Manning explained. “Even in the first quarter when we weren’t getting quite as many turnovers, I thought we were still playing at the pace we wanted to play at.”
The win sends Kirtland Central to the state quarterfinals, where the Broncos will face the Lovington Wildcats, who edged Portales Rams 41–40 in their opening-round matchup.
Fresquez said Lovington presents several unique challenges.
“They’ve got a girl averaging almost 20 points a game and they also have a 6-foot-5 player in the middle,” Manning said. “That’s something not a lot of teams in the state have — just a really big girl inside. It’ll be a good challenge for our girls to deal with both their scoring and their size.”
The quarterfinal matchup will take place on one of New Mexico basketball’s biggest stages.
Kirtland Central will face Lovington at 3 p.m. Tuesday at The Pit in Albuquerque, and the game will be broadcast live on KRWN 92.5 FM.
“It means we still have a chance to achieve a pretty big goal of ours,” Manning said about returning to The Pit. “But we know we’ve got a long way to go and Tuesday’s going to be a tough game. We just have to stay even-keeled, stay humble, and be ready to go.”
4A Bracket Update
Elsewhere in the 4A state tournament, several teams advanced to Tuesday’s quarterfinals:
- #2 Gallup Bengals rolled past #15 Pojoaque Valley Elks 68–38 and will face #7 Silver Fighting Colts, who defeated #10 Highlands Hornets 53–47.
- The #11Shiprock Lady Chieftains pulled off a mild upset, defeating the #6 Bernalillo Spartans 53–45.
- The #3 Albuquerque Academy Chargers advanced easily with a 48–20 win over the #14 Española Valley Sundevils.
- #5 Valencia Jaguars edged #12 St. Pius X Sartans 43–40.
- #4 Hope Christian Huskies defeated #13 Grants Pirates 47–25.
Valencia and Hope Christian will meet in the early quarterfinal game Tuesday morning at The Pit as the 4A tournament continues.
With several strong teams still in the field, the road to the 4A state championship will only get tougher — but the Broncos remain focused as they prepare for another big challenge Tuesday afternoon in Albuquerque.
