A dynasty versus history: Pecos, ATC face off again for Class 2A boys basketball title

Mar. 15—ALBUQUERQUE — There was a time when the players, coaches and fans at Pecos High School dreamed of winning just one state boys basketball championship after 51 years of trying.

Just one.

That's where Academy for Technology and the Classics finds itself. To do it, though, the Phoenix have to knock off what is now the gold standard of small-school basketball excellence in New Mexico in the Panthers, winners of six of the last eight Class 2A championships.

The two schools' clash Saturday morning in The Pit in the 2A championship game pits a program — Pecos — that now expects to play for state titles against one — ATC — that had never played in a state tournament game until a year ago and now makes its second consecutive championship-game appearance.

The Phoenix lost to the Panthers 52-49 in the finals in 2023 as Pecos claimed its fifth state title in seven years.

Pecos junior forward Adrian Quintana said while competing for state titles has become a yearly goal for the program, his father reminds him there was a time when the school yearned to win just one. Adrian Quintana Jr. played on the 2004-05 Pecos team that lost in the 2A title game to Mora as the school went through a championship drought that lasted from 1966 until 2017.

Since then, Pecos has failed to make it to what is called "Championship Saturday" only once — in the pandemic-shortened spring season of 2021.

"He tells me to enjoy the ride because you never know when the next one will come," the younger Quintana said.

Bobby Romero, ATC's third-year head coach, said Pecos has become the standard by which all other small-school programs measure themselves.

"I have nothing but respect for [Pecos head coach Arthur Gonzales]," Romero said. "I'm sure they feel the same way about us. It's going to be a battle, and I'm looking forward to it."

Gonzales said the success of the program over the past decade has created a culture that permeates each team and each graduating class. He said younger players practice and learn under older ones and fill their shoes almost seamlessly. That process has seen the program reach at least the 2A semifinals every year since 2015-16 and endured through a coaching change, as Gonzales replaced Ira Harge Jr. when he resigned in spring 2020.

"These guys, they get that opportunity to defend our best players in practice, and that's the message that is being sent as we continue to grow with the younger guys," Gonzales said. "They know they're going up against the best we have. Down the road, it's going to help. Everybody just needs to be patient, and you will have your opportunity when the time is right."

This year's matchup will be a role reversal, as Pecos comes in as the underdog while ATC spent the entire season as the prohibitive favorite in 2A.

The Panthers lost 10 players from last season to graduation and replaced them with a smaller group that can shoot and press. They struggled to a 16-10 record in the regular season and did not win the District 6-2A title for the first time in six seasons. They earned their lowest position in the 16-team state tournament bracket in 10 years — a seventh seed — and had to beat No. 2 Eunice and No. 3 Tularosa to reach the championship game.

Adrian Quintana said reaching the championship game means just as much as being a part of last year's state championship team because of the program's struggles this season.

"This feels amazing," Quintana said. "We've worked our whole lives to get here, and we fought and fought. When things were down, we just kept going."

Meanwhile, the Phoenix, led by inside duo Julian "JuJu" Bernardino and Rocky Miller, have won a school-record 28 games, were ranked No. 1 in the online New Mexico Overtime Sports coaches' poll the entire season and earned the top seed in the tournament.

The players at ATC admit they are hungry to bring home a state title and help establish a similar legacy at their own school, which began playing the sport in 2012. The Phoenix never had a winning season until three years ago and never made the state tournament until the incredible run of last year's Cinderella squad.

There were coaches and fans who never knew the school existed until a year ago, but ATC senior guard Jordan Apodaca said everybody knows them now.

"Teams finally started hearing who we were, started to notice us, so they wanted to play us," Apodaca said.

Apodaca is one of seven seniors on the team who helped ATC become one of the top small-school programs in the state. Several of them played as eighth graders on a team that won five games, and they slowly developed over time.

Until the 2021-22 season, the Phoenix never won more than 10 games in a season, but they won 16 games that year and fell just short of making the state tournament.

"We were 17th out of the 16 teams that made the state tournament," Romero jokingly said earlier this season.

But the program took off the following season, winning 26 games and earning the No. 2 seed in the 2A bracket.

This season has been different. The Phoenix came in with the expectations of being the favorites in 2A, and they played a tough schedule in preparation for that. ATC lost in the Bobby Rodriguez Capital City Tournament championship game to 5A school Santa Fe High, and played 5A schools Albuquerque West Mesa and Las Cruces Mayfield and 4A teams in Belen, Aztec and Albuquerque Del Norte.

Overall, the Phoenix fashioned a 28-3 record and earned a District 2-2A title on their way to the No. 1 seed. They then overcame an overtime thriller against Santa Rosa in the quarterfinals and outlasted Mesa Vista in Friday's semifinal to reach the championship game again. The players said they want to create a legacy of success that will sustain the program after they graduate this year.

"Being back here is, in a sense, building a legacy for these guys to have that experience and fill our shoes and do this again," Bernardino said. "That's what we're trying to do, and this is a great way to do it."

If anyone knows a great basketball matchup when he sees one, it's Mesa Vista head coach Thomas Vigil, who said Saturday could bring an "all-time great game." He played both teams this season and knows the tradition both programs bring — whether its over the past decade or just over the previous two season.

"It's got so many great storylines," Vigil said. "Two schools that are, like, 15-20 miles away from each other, the two teams that were here last year. ... It's like the sequel to what happened last year."