Magdalena basketball–district and homecoming games

Friday, Jan. 30, was the winter season homecoming for Magdalena. The Magdalena basketball teams took on the Hatch Valley Bears and Lady Bears for their homecoming games.

It was also the second day in a row for home games in Magdalena. On Thursday, Jan. 29, Magdalena hosted Quemado for junior high, JV and varsity games.

Girls basketball

Thursday was a tough day for the Magdalena girls basketball teams as they took on their district opponents from Quemado. Magdalena’s junior high team won their game easily, 48-17. However, the Quemado Lady Eagles prevailed in the close JV game, coming back to win 28-25. For varsity, Magdalena also led for most of the game, but Quemado came back in the fourth quarter to win 67-51.

“It was just not our night. We started off real strong, but didn't finish off. We’ve got to play fourth solid quarters, and we didn't do that. And with a team like that, if you let them hang around, they're big, strong and physical, and we're not as big, so the physicality, I think, took over a little bit,” Magdalena Head Coach Sara Sue Olney said. “But no excuses. We just didn't play our game.”

The Magdalena girls dominated the first quarter 21-5 and were still leading 41-35 at the start of the fourth quarter. Olney and her team know that they can beat Quemado, and hope to do so in their second district game this season.

“It's also only the third game of district. There's lots of games still to go, and we'll see them again.” Olney said.

Magdalena’s usual top scorers still contributed against Quemado. Elia Cleveland scored 16 points and Jema Ganadonegro had 12.

Magdalena is now 17-4 overall for the season, but fourth in their very competitive district at 1-2. They bounced back from their Quemado loss with an easy 69-17 win over the Class 3A Hatch Lady Bears. 

“Today's game was a really good…confidence builder. Get everybody in, everybody some touches, some shots, work on some stuff that we needed to fix in that game before, and have some fun, actually,” Olney said.

Seven Magdalena players put points on the board against Hatch, all with at least six points. Jema Ganadonegro led the way with 17 points, Homecoming Queen Elia Cleveland was next with 12 points and Kali Bruton added 10 points.

Boys basketball

The Steers played really solid basketball in the month of January to improve to an 11-9 overall record for the season. They were 7-3 last month, with those three losses coming against highly ranked teams, and one of those losses to their district opponent Cliff by a close 43-38 score. The Steers are currently second in their district at 2-1. 

“We definitely have improved a lot. Our record doesn't really show it, but man, we've come a long way,” #2 Prescott Herrera said.

All of the Magdalena boys teams easily won their games against the Quemado Eagles: JH won 65-7, JV won 62-31 and varsity won 64-43. The Steers basketball program has been improving all around this season.

For the varsity game, #2 Prescott Herrera had 12 points, #21 Kanaan Stephens scored 11 points and #20 JW Hunter had two 3-pointers and two 2-pointers for 10 points.

“I feel like we've come a long way from when we started. It was kind of rough. We didn't have too much chemistry at the beginning, but we're building it now,” #13 Shane Montoya said.

The day after their win against Quemado, the Steers beat the Hatch Valley Bears 58-34. Ky Stephens and Shane Montoya were both crowned senior homecoming kings in a tie vote during halftime of their game. Ky Stephens went on to finish the game with 11 points, while his brother Kanaan scored 12 points in the victory.

“I think we have a really good shot of being district champs this year. Cliff gave us pretty good fight the other day, but I don't think we were ready for that game. We went in there with our hands down. I think we could get back into the next game when we play them here at home,” Montoya said.

Ky Stephens and Montoya said they are working to improve on their rebounding and cutting down on the number of turnovers they make as they prepare for a home rematch against the Cliff team in about a week.

“We've actually come a long way on our turnovers, and I think we could still do a lot better. At the beginning of the season, we were getting like 25 per game, and now we're getting like six to seven per game,” Montoya said.

Cliff, Quemado, Reserve and Animas are the other teams in Magdalena’s district for basketball. With solid wins against Quemado and Animas already, Reserve’s not-so-strong record, and a closely played game against Cliff already, the district picture is looking pretty good for Magdalena at this point.

Magdalena basketball recent and upcoming games. 

1/29 JH (A), JV, V girls & boys at home versus Quemado, 2 gyms. 

1/30 JV, V girls & boys at home vs. Hatch, 2 gyms.

1/31 JH (A&B) girls & boys at home, Magdalena JH Tournament.

2/05 V girls & boys at Reserve, 5 & 6:30 p.m. 

2/06 JH (A&B) girls & boys at Reserve JH Tournament.

2/07 JH (A), V girls & boys at Animas, 11:00 a.m.

2/09 JV girls & boys at Socorro, 5 & 6:30 p.m.

2/10 JH (A), JV, V girls & boys at Quemado, 2 gyms, 3 p.m. 

2/12 V girls & boys at home vs. Cliff, 4:30 & 6 p.m.