Mountainair High boys basketball coach Kenneth Branch, with a state Class 1A boys basketball tournament first-round victory on the line Saturday night, kept hustling Mustangs senior Josh Gonzales on the bench for much of the third quarter and all of the fourth after the scrappy, 5-foot-10 starting forward/post, who has a heady nose for the ball, picked up his third foul.

In the end, it certainly looked like the third-year coach knew what he was doing. Mountainair defeated visiting Valley Christian Academy 47-43 in yet another exhilarating win, the sixth in a row for the District 7-1A champion 'Stangs.

"He got into foul trouble," Branch said about his coaching call. "And I'm all about getting the right five guys in there who are working together. Martin (Chavez) was working so hard, and Cody (McCurdy's) size was helpful (against a big Lions lineup). I didn't want to disrupt what was working. Josh Gonzales is a team player. He understands."

Indeed, Gonzales smiled at his coach and the two embraced as the other players celebrated following the final buzzer.

"Martin and Cody, they did well," said Gonzales, who still managed to score seven points, all in the first half for the second highest individual game total for Mountainair. "It was best for the team. We knew this would be the year we would do something."

Initially, Valley Christian (17-8) looked like it, instead of the Mustangs, would be the team advancing to the state quarterfinals. The Roswell private school took a 22-17 lead in the first quarter.

However, Mountainair (15-11) has a special weapon at its disposal, albeit one of small caliber at 5-foot-7 (that's stretching it) and 130 pounds. The Mustangs' star point guard, senior Joshua Ballejos, took charge and would ultimately score a game-high 25 points.

Mountainair crawled back into contention, and VCA barely held on to a 29-28 lead at the half. Yet, the Mustangs still, both on offense and defense, often literally disappeared in the paint among the opposing trees.

That's when Ballejos, by traditional wisdom the least likely one to counter the Lions' bulk, flew in with his invisible Mighty Mouse cape of red and grey fluttering in his wake. With the score tied at 33 and Valley Christian in a formidable 2-3 zone with 2:36 to go in the third, Ballejos sped past the defending Lions, who were pouting at midcourt about an official's call at the other end, to hit a fallaway jumper to give his team a 35-33 lead.

With he and his rejuvenated teammates grabbing rebounds on the defensive end, Ballejos followed that bucket with a fullcourt drive and a concluding dipsy-do of a flying underhanded scoop shot that bounced around the rim's circumference before ultimately oozing over the rim's lip and falling through for a 35-33 advantage at the 1:28 mark. Ballejos then shot the ball off the glass after a bounding drive, highlighted by a skip and hop through the teeth of the defense, for a 39-33 lead with 55.9 seconds remaining in the period.

Mountainair had a 39-35 lead at the end of the third.

Then, it was VCA's turn to come back. Logan Rader connected with his second 3 with 1:13 left in the game to regain the lead at 43-42.

Once again, though, it was Ballejos to the rescue. The Mustang, on the subsequent trip downcourt, sank his second trey of the night to grab the lead back at 45-43 with 1:02 remaining.

"It's hard to believe that Josh Ballejos, such a small guy, can have such big shoulders," Branch said. "That 3 he hit was huge."

Lion Jared Visser subsequently missed a 3-pointer that bounced over the top of the backboard with 46.2 seconds left, and Branch called a full timeout with 27 seconds on the clock.

Valley Christian, after the timeout, had to foul the Mustangs twice, as they still weren't in the bonus, prior to Ballejos being sent to the free-throw line with 12.3 seconds left. He calmly hit both charity tosses to conclude the scoring as Lion Gus Gray missed a 3 with 5 seconds remaining, and Chavez failed on the front end of a 1-and-1 with 1.9 seconds left.

"They definitely had a height advantage on us," Branch said. "But we have a lot of quickness. We got it up and down the court on them."

Mountainair's other scorers included Patrick Romero (five); McCurdy (four); Garyn Anaya (three) and Chavez (three). Romero, McCurdy and Anaya are seniors.

"I didn't care about the points," McCurdy said. "I just wanted to get the rebounds. Those guys were too big."

For Romero, the reason for their success is more fundamental.

"Heart. We have heart," he said. "We're happy. We haven't got this far in a while."

VCA was led by Taylor Line (14 points) and Lane Vander Hulst (12).

Lions coach Carl Lyons said he had scouted the Mustangs prior to their state matchup.

"They (the 'Stangs) shot better this time," he said. "They didn't shoot that way against Hondo (in the 7-1A finals Feb. 27). But I hear they shoot better at home. And we didn't shoot as well as we usually do. But that's the game of basketball. That's how the ball bounces. But do please tell Mountainair that I said, 'Congratulations,' and that we wish them well in the state tournament."

With the first-round win, the Mustangs advanced to the state quarterfinals. They were seeded eighth by a New Mexico Activities Association committee on Sunday and were scheduled to meet No. 1 Cliff (25-1) in the quarterfinals at Bernalillo High's gym late Wednesday, after the Telegraph's deadline.