Santa Fe vs Los Lunas Christian Herrera, center, shoots under pressure from Los Lunas Jalin Holland

Christian Herrera, center, shoots under pressure from Los Lunas defenders Logan Tafoya, left, Jalin Holland and Rex Kinsey during Wednesday’s District 5-5A game at Santa Fe High. The Demons beat the Tigers 55-44 to remain a district title contender.

Tigers are more fierce than those who hail from Los Lunas High School.
Jalin Holland is not just the best basketball player in the state; he is a force of
nature who strikes fear into the hearts of many opponents – most of whom seem helpless to stop his ability to get whatever shot he wants, whenever he wants it.
So, the Santa Fe High Demons took a novel approach when preparing for their rematch with Holland and the District 5-5A-leading Tigers: they played him straight up. They learned their lesson of double-teaming, trapping and collapsing on the
6-foot-5 junior wing and decided just to guard him with one player.
It proved to be a wise choice.
While Holland finished with 27 points, he was also in and out of the game early and often as he nursed foul trouble. The Demons, meanwhile, showed patience on offense that helped them fashion a 55-44 win Wednesday night in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium.
The win kept Santa Fe High’s hopes of winning the 5-5A title alive, as it moved within a game of Los
Coupled with Capital’s surprising 66-50 win over Albuquerque High, it turned what was brewing into a three-team battle with the Bulldogs for first into a two-team matchup, at least for now.
All it took was learning how to live with the beast that is Holland. It was a far different strategy Santa Fe High (18-5 overall, 5-2 in 5-5A) employed in a
58-57 loss at Los Lunas on Jan. 27, as Holland scored
41 points on 14-for-20 shooting.
“We just said we’re going to play him straight up,” Demons head coach Cisco Rivera said. “We did a good job the last time, but we went away from that. We stuck to what Demon basketball is and just made things hard for him. He’s going to get his. He’s a top-50 player in the country. There is not much you can do with a guy like him.
“You have to pray he misses shots.”
It helps when Holland can’t shoot, especially from the bench. He picked up a pair of fouls within 90 seconds midway through the opening quarter, which sent him to the sidelines for most of the first half. He played just five minutes in the half and had five points to show for it.
“It’s hard with getting into a rhythm,” Holland said. “I usually get the things going with scoring and stuff. [Tuesday], it was really on my teammates to kickstart things on offense.”
That helped Santa Fe High build a 25-13 lead that could have been bigger if not for turnovers and some sloppy defense in the second quarter.

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cisco academie