ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KTSM) – Organ Mountain was the best team in southern New Mexico all season long. The Knights are trying to prove they’re as good as anyone in the entire state, too.
No. 5 Organ Mountain defeated No. 4 West Mesa 59-55 on Wednesday in a wire-to-wire win in the Class 5A boys State Quarterfinals at The Pit in Albuquerque.
The victory pushed the Knights into the Final Four for the first time since 2016, where they will face No. 1 Volcano Vista at 8:15 p.m. Thursday night at The Pit.
“We have come a long way,” Organ Mountain head coach Rocky Gonzales said. “When we first took over the program, we started talking about The Pit. We came up short last year. I’m proud of the boys for getting here. All of the teams in the tournament are from Albuquerque except us. I felt like we need to let everybody know in the state that Organ Mountain can play too.”
As the only Class 5A team remaining in the tournament from outside the Albuquerque metro area, the Knights put on a show early and often.
Forward Brandon Kehres had 24 points and 10 rebounds on 8-of-8 shooting, scoring 20 of his points in the first half.
“He is that type of player you can go to inside,” Gonzales said. “This year, teams were keying on him and we kind of went away from him throughout the season and in district play. … You see a different team sometimes and they might not know how dangerous he could be in there, but he played big for us today.”
Yehnhi Wilson had 13 points and hit a deep three-pointer at the third quarter buzzer to give Organ Mountain a six-point advantage entering the fourth quarter.
With the win, Organ Mountain improved to 25-4 on the season. They join the No. 7 Las Cruces girls in the Class 5A State Semifinals The Lady Bulldawgs will face No. 3 Volcano Vista at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday at The Pit.
