RIO RANCHO — These Santa Fe Indian School Braves aren't worried about style points.

You can tell that when they walked into the Santa Ana Star Center on Wednesday evening wearing goofy-looking 3-D glasses with the frames popped out.

With the glasses back on, the third-seeded Braves walked out of the arena with a sloppy 70-51 win over No. 11 Las Vegas Robertson in the quarterfinals of the Class AAA State Basketball Tournament.

"It's a team bonding thing with a little humor to it, so it's fun for them," Ernie Rodriguez, SFIS head coach has said of his team's trendy fashion statement. "They're kids so we want them to have fun. I'm OK with it when I tell myself it's sort of a Clark Kent thing. When they take those glasses off and step out of the phone booth and onto the court, they're all business."

That was the case when the senior-dominated Braves (22-7) used an in-your-face defensive approach to hold Robertson to 19.2 percent shooting (5 of 26) in the first half.

SFIS, which beat Robertson by 24 and 12 points in District 2AAA regular season, took a 35-21 lead into halftime.

"I like to think it was a combination of both," Rodriguez said when asked if it was poor shooting from Robertson or his team's defense. "And maybe a little bit of nerves."

SFIS wasn't lights out from the field, itself, shooting just 11 of 31 (35.5 percent) in the first half. But its up-tempo, yet always in control style wore down the Cardinals.

A 20-11 third quarter advantage was the nail in the coffin for the Robertson season, which ends with a 19-10 record a season after winning just 7 games.

"I'm proud of the improvement these guys have made from last year to now," Robertson head coach David Bustos said. "As far as this game went, Santa Fe Indian School can really put the pressure on you and I don't think we always handled that as well as we could have."

Justin Bustos, the coach's son and the team's sophomore star, led the way with 13 points for Robertson but his 3 of 11 shooting from the field was indicative of his team's struggles.

The familiarity between the two schools brought no comfort to the Braves entering the game.

"That made it more of a challenge," Stevan Rodriguez, SFIS senior guard, said. "Because they were going to come hard at us after the regular season."

While the Cardinals did come hard, the Braves didn't seem phased.

All 12 Braves suited up scored, led by 18 points from senior forward Jamaal Anderson. Stevan Rodriguez, a senior guard, added 10 points and senior center Jody Atencio had 11 points and nine rebounds in just 13 minutes before fouling out. He admitted after the game that he actually forgot his glasses.

The win creates a Friday semifinal showdown with
No. 2 Albuquerque Sandia Prep, a team with more size than SFIS has faced this year.

"I think we have as good a chance as anybody," Ernie Rodriguez said.

Most onlookers would argue it might take a Superman-like effort for the Class AAA championship game not to feature No. 1 Hope Christian and
No. 2 Sandia Prep.

But the Braves, Clark Kent glasses and all, plan to show up to The Pit to play Friday morning, anyway, no matter how silly they look.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3060 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at grammerschoolblog.com.