If the Santa Fe High boys basketball team didn't get the message from the first 23 games, No. 24 was a nasty little reminder.

There are no days off for the undersized Demons.

Now, there might not be a postseason.

The Matadors of Albuquerque Sandia, fighting for their state tournament lives, kept hope alive with a crushing 74-44 win in a District 2AAAAA game in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium on Wednesday.

The win improved Sandia to 2-3 and vaulted it ahead of the Demons, who are 2-4 after a 2-0 start, and into third place. The night was commiserate of what the Matadors believed in their hearts.

"We knew we had to get this one," first-year Matadors head coach Alvin Broussard said. "So we focused. We gotta win this game and just focus."

That sense of urgency did not permeate to the Demons sideline.

The Santa Fe High team that was on the cusp of a 3-0 start after taking Albuquerque La Cueva to the final minutes back on Jan. 28 has left the building.

Not even Demons head coach Lenny Roybal knew what to make of the squad he's seen over the past two weeks.

"We didn't have a good week of practice this past week and this week was just as bad," Roybal said. "I can't pinpoint it, so I don't know what it is with us. I think Sandia came in here ready to play and what did we shoot, 10 percent?"

Not quite. Santa Fe High (10-14 overall) was 13-for-49 from the field, and a paltry 5 of 28 in the second half. That, combined with the 17 offensive rebounds by Sandia — 11 of which came in the second half — simply added to the humiliation.

"We're just not coming in ready to play," Demons junior forward Michael Dean said. "Maybe our heads got too big when we were playing with La Cueva. We were doing really good at that point, and then our heads got too big."

That shouldn't be a problem after the Demons have dropped four straight district games, including a 62-59 overtime loss to last-place Albuquerque High on Feb. 5.

Santa Fe High looked a step slow from the outset, and that just made the Demons two steps behind Matadors guard Joseph Moquino. The 5-foot-11 guard simply attacked the rim, and usually with two Demons giving chase.

He exploded in the second quarter for 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting.

In fact, Sandia (11-13) hit its last eight shots of the quarter, and when Moquino dropped in a 3 with :06 left in the first half, Sandia was up 30-23.

Moquino scored the first three baskets of the third to ignite a 16-2 run for a 46-26 lead.

"That's what he's done for us all year," Broussard said.

Then there was 6-6 junior center Elliot Parras, who grabbed nine rebounds and scored all 11 of his points in the second half. Six of his caroms were on the offensive end.

With no Demon able to execute a block-out, Parras was free to pluck the ball from the arms of a waiting Demon, which he did to Dean once in the fourth quarter. He simply raised his arms over the 5-9 junior, snared the ball and put it back in for a 59-35 lead.