ALL EYES ON PRIZE.

Byline: JAMES BARRON

LOS ALAMOS -- This is what Steve Alford and Co. saw Wednesday night.

u A determined Espanola Valley team attack the basket with abandon, knowing that Los Alamos' 6-foot-11 behemoth Alex Kirk would be waiting for them.

u Kirk responding in kind by dumping in 21 points and grabbing 15 rebounds.

u An explosive fourth quarter by Sundevils guard Donovan Maldonado.

u And an all-important 64-58 District 2AAAA win for the Sundevils in boys basketball in front of a sold-out Griffith Gymnasium.

Espanola, which lost 59-53 to Los Alamos on Jan. 30 at home, regained the district lead from Los Alamos at 6-1. A win over Bernalillo on Saturday will secure the top seed for next week's district tournament. It also keeps the Sundevils (21-4 overall) in contention for the top seed in the Class AAAA State Tournament in two weeks.

That was all the Sundevils could think about in the days, hours and minutes prior to the game.

"This game was real big for us because we knew they stole one at our house," Maldonado said. "We came in here wanting to win because we knew what it could do to our seeding."

That fact was lost on the trio of Alford, the head men's basketball coach at The University of New Mexico, his assistant head coach Craig Neal and UNM president David Schmidley.

They took in the game, knowing full well they would see Kirk take center stage for the Hilltoppers. The junior is considered one of the top centers in the nation by several basketball recruiting sites, and UNM wants him to be a Lobo.

But they also got to see how a team with no player taller than 6-4 turn Kirk into a jump shooter, which took the rest of his teammates out of their game. Espanola's game plan was to follow Kirk all 94 feet of the court and to push, shove and stand in his way.

"We had to work him inside and out," Sundevils head coach Richard Martinez said. "We went at him hard, and we knew that he might hurt us early. But later on, he wouldn't hit the shots he normally would make."

Kirk managed but three baskets inside of 16 feet, while he hit a pair of 3-pointers and five of seven free throws. Kirk had five points in the fourth quarter, but his lone contribution in the final 4 minutes was a free throw at the 1:15 mark to cut Espanola's lead to 58-52.

Los Alamos head coach Alan Kirk, who also is the father to Alex, muted his protest at Espanola's physical play.

"Take from it what you want," is all he said.

While Alex Kirk commanded attention, it was Maldonado who stole the spotlight. With the score tied at 43-all, the 6-foot senior came up with a steal at midcourt that he converted into a breakaway layup for 45-43 with 6:40 left.

After Los Alamos (17-8, 5-2) lost possession again on a jump-ball situation -- and counted for one of 26 turnovers on the night -- Maldonado came around a Luis Alvarado screen and hit a wide-open 18-footer to increase the margin to four.

After Alex Kirk hit two free throws for 47-45, Maldonado wasted no time in launching a 3 from the left wing for 50-45.

"Well, I hit a couple of shots early on, but I was shaky," Maldonado said. "And Richard got on us seniors for not showing more leadership at halftime. I knew I needed to step up and do it this game."

While he finished his scoring at 13 points, he added three more steals to help Espanola stave off a 6-2 Hilltopper rally in the last 2:06 that got them to 60-58 on a pair of Doug Hardy free throws with 0:17.9 to go.

The Sundevils came up with their last two steals of the game, Alvarado hit two free throws and then Matthew Brito ended the festivities with a tip in at the buzzer.

Then, it was an Espanola Valley celebration on the court.

Meanwhile, Alan Kirk was busy entertaining some special guests in his office, although he couldn't -- and wouldn't -- say why they were there.

"They came here because they support their high school basketball, which is nice," Kirk said with a smile.