Magdalena bounces back with swamping of Tularoas

Magdalena boys coach Jory Mirabal will tell you straight up his Steers are not one of the high-flying acts of the past, but when you can hold an opponent to just six second-half points, you don't have to be overly flashy.

The Steers plastered Class 3A Tularosa 49-21, and the victory was sparked by 16 points from Joe Zamora and 14 from Jacob Markland.

"We're going to be pretty basic. We've got to get back to fundamentals to be able to play. We saw that this weekend. I mean, if we want to go out there and run around and throw stuff all over the gym, we're not going to be very good. If we want to play solidly, then we're a decent team," Mirabal said.

Solid in Magdalena means good enough to make a run at a state title and to win a 12th consecutive district title. Beating a Class 3A team looks good on one's strength of schedule, but there are more significant battles to fight in Class A basketball, like taking on the defending state champions.

The Steers fared well in the early going of their game against Fort Sumer/House and trailed 24-22 at the half. After that, Magdalena had problems staying on script and scored only 11 points in the second half.

"When you fall into that trap and don't stay disciplined, well, then you're not going to get very good results," Mirabal said. The first half was a tight game, and then we came out in the second half and decided that we wanted to try to run. We're not going to run on Fort Sumner, in the past, we could run them off the floor, but that's not what I have now. I've got to adapt to my teams."

Even with a slow offensive start, it was a much different story against Tularosa. The Steers turned a 10-7 first-quarter lead into a 26-15 advantage. Tularosa was folded up for good after a 13-0 third quarter and a 21-6 fourth.

Because it's early in the season and his team is still learning, Mirabal takes advantage of every game situation and timeout he can. With 9.1 seconds left in the third quarter against Tularosa, he wanted a chance to talk with his team and subbed his entire unit.

"I've got kids that didn't get a break. I didn't get Aiden off the floor once. That's a cheap sub for that whole first group and bought me basically an extra 30-second timeout. I pull those guys off. I can talk to them. I put that bench out there. One possession is not going to cost me the end of the world. I just tell them, no fouls, even if they score in that possession, we go into the fourth being up by 12. Worst case scenario, we're up 12," Mirabal said.

Following Zamora and Markland's lead in scoring against Tularosa were Aiden Herschbach with 7 points, Shane Montoya with 6, Jeffery Stuteville with 4, and Ky Stephens with 2.

Against Fort Sumner/House, Zamora's 16 points were tops for the Steers, while Markland had eight.