NMPreps daily guide to New Mexico high school basketball for the 2021/2022 season. #nmpreps
January 18th Starting Five
Robertson (8-5) at Santa Fe Indian (7-5): The Cardinals and Braves are looking to make their claim as a state champion contender in a wide open class. The Cardinals feature one of our Top-50 standouts in Matthew Gonzales.
Centennial (8-9) at Organ Mountain (6-10): This could be a bubble game when looking at the state tournament. Both teams are around the 13-18 range of teams fighting for a bid. Jeven Beltran (2022) is having a solid season averaging 17.1 ppg for Centennial.
Hope Christian (10-7) at Albuquerque Academy (7-4): The two teams are looking for the seat at the state tournament. Both could be top-8 seeds are one falls outside the top-8 and on the road in the opening round. This district will be a royal rumble again. Jett Wycoff (2023/Hope Christian) and Kellan Gehres (2023/Albuquerque Academy) provides us with a must-see match-up.
Fort Sumner (7-2) at Melrose (8-3): 1A basketball showdown with two teams ranked in the top-four of the NMPreps New Mexico week 9 team rankings. Melrose being lead by its duo of 6-3 senior Logan Devaney and 6-3 sophomore Michael Cardonita.
Sandia (8-6) at Farmington (15-1): Deal or no deal as a top ten team in New Mexico high school basketball. Sandia enters the week ranked 7th and the 15-1 Scorpions at 10th. 6-6 senior guard Sean Johnson, preseason ranked No. 2 in the Top-20 players, has returned and coming off a 24-point, 9 rebound, 4 assist night vs Cleveland last week. He's averaging 22.6 ppg and 7.6 rpg.
Sixth Man: Round three of the Cleveland Storm (10-8) vs the Volcano Vista Hawks (16-0). The second ranked Hawks have won comfortable in the first two games (81-70, 76-56) but let's not count out the defending champs led by Top-20 player Daniel Steverson (2024). However, the Hawks have the duo of top-10 ranked players Ja'Kwon Hill (2022) and Sean Atler (2022).
Predictions
