ALBUQUERQUE — Not too shabby for an opener.

St. Michael's raised the curtain on its District 5AAA schedule in style with a 50-28 rout of host Sandia Preparatory on Thursday night in the Prep Fieldhouse.

Ranked second to district rival Albuquerque Hope Christian in this week's Class AAA coaches poll, the Horsemen (14-3, 1-0) played what might have been their best all-around game of the season as they led for all but 52 seconds.

The evidence of their dominance came in what was probably one of their worst shooting efforts of any quarter all year.

After taking a 12-4 lead after the first period, they went 1-for-10 from the field with three turnovers in the second quarter. The third-ranked Sundevils (10-8, 0-1) managed to shave just one point off their deficit heading into halftime.

That's because St. Michael's turned up the heat defensively. The full-court press and half-court man defense forced 10 turnovers and limited Prep to 28 percent shooting in the first half.

They finished the game just 11-for-43 from the floor with 18 turnovers.

"Our defense is what won the game for us," said Matt Barela, Horsemen junior forward. "We were all over the place."

"It's our speed," added junior shooting guard Kameron Romero. "I wouldn't say we're a defense-first team. We just have the speed to cover every team we play. We can keep the pressure on all game."

It doesn't hurt to have plenty of depth. St. Michael's utilized its entire bench once again against a Prep roster that, as is usually the case against the Horsemen, has a height advantage in almost every position.

Head coach Ron Geyer said it was a total team effort that got the job done.

He especially liked the play of his defense, saying it was up to the challenge against what is one of the top teams in all of AAA.

"We tend to miss a lot of shots inside when we're facing bigger teams, and that was the case again here [Thursday]," he said. "But I thought we did a very good job with our press. We forced some bad passes and it gave us some chances for fastbreaks. I'm really proud of the way we played defensively."

The lead was 19-12 at halftime, but grew to 11 midway through the third quarter when Daniel Ortega hit a transition layup to make it 27-16. It was part of a 10-2 run that put the game out of reach by the end of the quarter.

It was 33-19 entering the fourth, then 47-24 after a three-point play by Antonio Garcia midway through the final period.

The frustration on Prep's side was evident all night.

Sundevils center Max Mitnik ended the first quarter by missing an uncontested fastbreak layup at the buzzer, a miss that had Prep head coach Willie Owens throw his arms up in disbelief.

In the third quarter, Sundevils guard Wyatt Thomas, who finished with a team-high 11 points, missed three layups in less that two minutes' time.

One of them was a wide-open attempt where he got his own rebound off a fastbreak miss, then tossed the putback off the back of the rim when no one else was in the lane with him.

It led to a turnover moments later when he was called for a loose-ball foul on an inbounds pass on the baseline.

Barela led the Horsemen with 14 points. Garcia had 10, all of them coming in the fourth quarter.

Romero had nine. Alex Saiz had five points while Ortega and Matt Tapia each had four.

"It's a big, big win for us," Barela said. "Coming in here and winning on the road to start district, this was the perfect way for us to get things going. This was exactly the kind of game we needed."

Added Romero: "I think it says a lot about us. If we can play like this, I think we can do it against anyone."

Up next for the Horsemen is a Saturday showdown with Pojoaque Valley.

The game everyone wants to see, however, is still two weeks away as the first of two regular season games between
St. Michael's and Hope isn't until Feb. 2 in Perez-Shelley Memorial Gymnasium.