Saturday - Sangre de Cristo, Sanford and Del Norte girls basketball and Sangre de Cristo boys basketball all qualified for State tournaments in their respective classes. In the 3A class Alamosa and Centauri continued their climb up the bracket with wins to clear locally hosted quadrants. San Luis Valley’s girls’ basketball pool is chock full of talent. Of the eight teams from the SLV that qualified for the State Tournament across the various classes, five were girls’ squads. The first game of the day was Sangre de Cristo in 1A. The Lady Thunderbirds (21-2) were facing Springfield in La Junta for the Region 3 tournament finals. Region 3 will be sending six total squads, three boys and three girls to the State Championships at Colorado State University- Pueblo. Sangre de Cristo would claim the lead early in the first quarter and never looked back to earn a 53-41 win and their place at the table. Also in 1A were the male counterparts from Mosca. Sangre de Cristo’s boys would have a great opportunity to earn their State Championship berth facing Kim-Branson for the second time. The first time the two teams met the T-Birds pinned a 61-30 loss on Kim-Branson. The second game followed a similar path, Sangre de Cristo won 69-42 to move on to the State Tournament. 2A was a packed class on Saturday. Sanford boys and girls were playing host to their own regional tournament. Up first were the Sanford girls (19-4). Against Soroco things started out competitive both teams going back-and-forth even ending the first quarter separated by two points. It looked as though it might stay tight when the Rams tied the game at 13 but Sanford had other plans. Sanford would seal the game with an 11-point run that spanned the second and third quarters. Soroco was never able to recover, Sanford took the 50-32 win to claim the Region 5 title.