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ALBUQUERQUE — There was more than one parallel between the Los Alamos Hilltopper boys basketball team’s game Monday against Kirtland Central and its game Thursday against the Academy Chargers.
Chief among those parallels, however, was the presence of a big man down low that the Hilltoppers struggled to stop.
Academy’s 6-foot-4 senior, Chris Martin, had a dominant showing in the first quarter Thursday, dropping in 10 points and doing virtually anything he wanted against the Hilltoppers.
Martin gave the Chargers a 13-point advantage after one quarter as Academy rolled to a 58-41 win.
While Martin played virtually an identical role for the Chargers that Christian Mackey did for Kirtland Central earlier in the week, that was hardly the only similarity between the two losses for the Hilltoppers.
Los Alamos (1-11), for the second straight game, had a quarter where it managed just two points. Only a field goal by William Steinkamp with 1:45 remaining in the quarter kept the Hilltoppers from being shut out in the period — it was also a bucket by Steinkamp at the buzzer of the second quarter Monday that ended up being the lone points there.
And once again, Los Alamos had its best quarter of the game in the fourth quarter which, unfortunately, occurred well after the outcome had been determined.

The Los Alamos Hilltopper ice hockey team has a tough slate of games coming up for this weekend’s Taos Showcase Tournament.
Los Alamos has won three of its last four contests to improve to 4-2 in the New Mexico Interscholastic Ice Hockey League standings, but will have to contend with three teams from Texas in three days, including the top two teams in the league.
The Hilltoppers will meet Odessa, Texas, Friday, then take on El Paso Franklin Saturday and El Paso Coronado Sunday in Taos.
All this weekend’s games will be played at the Taos Youth and Family Center.
The Los Alamos-Odessa contest is set for 7 p.m. Friday. Odessa isn’t a member of the NMIIHL.
But the Hilltoppers could have their hands full against both El Paso teams. Between them, they have lost just one game, with Coronado topping Franklin in mid-December.
Currently, Los Alamos is in third place behind the two El Paso teams in the standings. Los Alamos leapfrogged Taos after it knocked off the Ice Tigers 3-1 at home Dec. 20, the final game before the holiday break.
Saturday’s Los Alamos-Franklin game is set for 6 p.m. and Sunday’s Los Alamos-Coronado game is scheduled for 11:30 a.m.
This will be the first time Los Alamos has faced either El Paso team this season.

The Los Alamos Hilltopper boys basketball team once again struggled to find offense Monday afternoon and was again handed another one-sided loss.
Los Alamos was held to just two points in the second quarter Monday at Griffth Gymnasium and only 11 points in the first half against the Kirtland Central Broncos.
Meanwhile, the Broncos used an effective inside-outside game to take control of the contest early and cruised to a 58-32 victory.
It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Hilltoppers (1-10), who were hoping to build some momentum heading into a very difficult stretch of upcoming games right before the start of the District 2-4A season.
Unfortunately for them, Kirtland Central (8-3) had other plans, and those plans included a big performance from its star center Christian Mackey.
Mackey, a multi-tool player despite a big 6-foot-5 frame, dominated underneath the basket on both ends of the floor. He dropped in a game-high 15 points, including connecting on three straight buckets in the third quarter to quash any lingering hopes the Hilltoppers had of getting back into the game.
On the defensive end, Mackey blocked two shots down low early that gave the Los Alamos offense pause anytime it got the ball in the lane.

The Los Alamos Hilltoper girls basketball team picked up two wins in three tries at last weekend’s Goddard Holiday Classic tournament.
Los Alamos won in the opening round over the Gadsden Panthers, but dropped a semifinal round decision to the Roswell Coyotes.
The Hilltoppers did bounce back after the semifinal round loss to knock off the Oñate Knights in the third-place game.
Both the Panthers and the Knights are Class 5A schools, and both games played out in similar fashion.
In both games, Los Alamos (5-6) came up with big second quarters to seemingly take control of the ballgame, only to have its opponent roar back in the third quarter. Los Alamos doubled-up Gadsden 18-9 right before the half Thursday and outscored Oñate 19-7 Saturday in that second quarter.
The Hilltoppers topped Gadsden 56-52 and knocked off Oñate 56-49.
In the semifinal, Roswell held Los Alamos to just five total field goals to take that game 42-31. Los Alamos was led in scoring against Roswell by McKenzie Logan’s 14 points, with 9 of those points coming at the foul line.
Both the Logans, McKenzie and Amber, had big tournament showings. McKenzie also dropped in 13 points against Gadsden, while Amber got into double-figures against both the Panthers and the Knights.