Hilltoppers Have Solid Showing Against Academy

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on January 12, 2023
- 6:14 am

The Toppers charge onto the court Tuesday night in Griffith Gymnasium. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com

Toppers Head Coach Benito Maestas strategizes with his team before the game. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com

By MIKE COTE
Sports
Los Alamos Daily Post

Although on the scoreboard Tuesday night’s game seemed one-sided, the scoreboard didn’t tell the whole story.

Los Alamos’ boys basketball team took on the Albuquerque Academy Chargers at Griffith Gymnasium. The Chargers, one of the top teams in Class 4A, brought with them a cadre of weapons they used to great effect, jumping out to a big early lead and holding it the entire way.

However, after the initial onslaught, Los Alamos was able to play fairly even with the Chargers most of the rest of the way. The Chargers would prevail, however, 70-54.

That game was broadcast on the Los Alamos Daily Post’s YouTube channel.

Academy (10-2) has posted some big wins on the season, including a recent lopsided win over arch-rival St. Pius X, but after the hot start by the Chargers, Los Alamos (4-10) got into the swing of things and put together one of its best team games of the season.

The Hilltoppers were once again without leading scorer Niko Garcia, whom the team hopes to get back possibly this week. But behind sophomore guard Josiah Fresquez, who has shouldered much of the load in Garcia’s absence, the Hilltoppers managed to keep the second, third and fourth quarters relatively even.

Fresquez came up with 19 points, just one off of the game’s leading scorer, Kellen Gehres, who has been a thorn in Los Alamos’ side for his entire basketball career. Fresquez hit three 3-pointers in the game and had several nice drives to the hoop against the much taller Academy team.

But his biggest contribution may have been in the ball distribution area. Fresquez helped create several easy opportunities for buckets throughout the contest, which ended up being one of the Hilltoppers’ best offensive games of the season despite not having any answers for Academy on the other end.

Los Alamos got perhaps the best game in the career of its lone senior, Rick Valdez, who had 12 points in the first half, and got good minutes from its bench players, most notably Ben McBride, who had a solid defensive game against the bigger Charger lineup and even hit a nice-looking 3-pointer late.

McBride finished with 7 points Tuesday.

For Academy, Justin Mask scored 14 points and Dillon McCleskey had 12 points to help lead the big offensive night for their team.

This is a busy week for Los Alamos ahead of the start of the District 2 season. Los Alamos hosts Aztec at 6 p.m. Friday, then comes back to host Miyamura at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Rick Valdez makes a 2-point shot early in the first quarter. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com