Senior Josh Baca puts up fastbreak points against Cliff.
Russell Huffman | El Defensor Chieftain

MAGDALENA—No. 6 Cliff dropped back into a zone to slow down No. 1 Magdalena, and the move worked, but it didn’t stop the Steers from winning their 10th straight district basketball title on Feb. 16 with a 64-29 victory.

In Magdalena’s storied basketball program, winning district has become commonplace – the Steers haven’t hung a district title banner on their gym wall since 2008. Winning a district title is a tick mark on the list of season goals, and the last one is hoisting a third-straight state title trophy.

At 26-0 in the 2022-23 basketball season, the Steers are chasing New Mexico high school boys basketball history. Thursday’s win was Magdalena’s 41st in a row, which ranks 5th all-time in the state.

Having Cliff back down into a zone required Magdalena to shift gears, but the Steers had little problem slowing down their offense.

“We can play any tempo. I understand what they’re doing right there because that’s the speed they want to play at,” Steers coach Jory Mirabal said. “But that plays right into our wheelhouse too, because we can play a controlled tempo as well.”

More importantly, the Steers can blanket a court on defense, and if you can hold a No. 4 team to just ten first-half points, you can also manipulate the tempo with turnovers and a few fast breaks here and there.

Mirabal isn’t spending any time reflecting on his team having a decade’s worth of district titles as he prepares for the postseason.

“There won’t be any reflecting. I think it’s exciting. This group right here has been there for five of them (district titles) what I think is neat is that we’ve had that sustained success, and we’d been in three or four different districts,” Mirabal said. “This is the end of the season; We start a whole new deal here. Once you get to the state tournament, it’s one loss, and you are done, so our focus is on preparing for the next step. We have bigger fish to fry.”

While the Steers have three state titles, they have been to the state title game and come away empty-handed, and Mirabal is steeling his troops to stop that from happening.

“We’ve seen lots of upsets over the years. We’ve been involved in them on the good and bad side of those upsets. And so, we just have to be real careful and cognizant of staying true to what we are all about,” Mirabel said.

Scoring

Ayden Herschbach 3, Kael Stephens 11, D’Shaun Vinyard 17, Josh Baca 4, Kaleb Castanon 2, Jeff Stuteville 6, Krae Stephens 4, Joseph Zamora 9, Matthew Parker 8.

Russell Huffman | Assistant Editor