Former Wildcats battle at EPAC

TEXICO — Whether they played in it, watched a relative, coached or refereed in a former tournament, the Eastern Plains Athletic Conference basketball tournament has a way of bringing people back together.

It even brought together former Clovis teammates, as the Texico High School sidelines got a little animated with former Wildcats Jonathan Langan and Logan Turnbow.

The former got the best of the latter Wednesday, as Langan's Grady Bronchos eked out a 67-66 victory over Turnbow's Elida Tigers behind 32 points from Grady's Chisum Rush.

In Wednesday's others games, Melrose topped Dora 66-22, Logan beat Tatum 64-57 and Floyd defeated San Jon 53-35 in the late contest.

The 2010 Clovis High grads, a former guard and post combo for the late J.D. Isler at Clovis, met for the first time as varsity coaches.

Counting their middle school coaching days — Langan at Yucca, Turnbow at Gattis — Wednesday marked their sixth game against each other.

"When we saw the brackets on Sunday, we immediately started texting each other," said Turnbow, who is in his second season with Elida. "That makes it 4-2, in my favor, but dang, you want this one."

Langan, in his first year at Grady, said the three days leading up to the game had plenty of anticipation.

"Leading up to it, I was really anxious," Langan said. "We know the game just like Coach Isler taught us. I knew we were going to have to adjust things due to the coaching we've had together."

To their credit, the Tiger and Broncho players gave the coaches plenty of reasons to get excited, and the two rarely sat down as they barked commands at their players and - let's say, suggestions — at the officiating crew.

The game featured seven ties and 10 lead changes, a contrast from EPAC's three other early games decided by average margins of 27 points.

The final lead change came early in the fourth following a 14-4 Grady run marked by nine points from Lucas Whitehead. His 3-pointer with 7:16 to go make it 55-52, and the lead ballooned to six as Elida just couldn't do enough chipping away.

The Tigers, led by Cris Diaz' 23 points, including consecutive 3s in a 12-2 second-quarter fun that made it 33-24 with 2:48 before the half. But the Bronchos responded with an 15-2 run that bridged the second and third quarters.

"They just came after us, never relented," Turnbow said. "Time and time again we had them down, but they stuck to their gameplan."

Rush scored 20 of his points in the first half, while Whitehead took over after halftime with 15 of his 17 points.

Elida cut the lead to 66-63 with 20 seconds left on a Baylee Oder trey, but the Tigers couldn't get the steal and Isaiah Mitchell iced it with a free throw with 10.6 seconds to play. Elida called its final timeout to set up a play, but Langan instructed his players to stay near halfcourt to avoid any potential four-point play. Diaz hit a 3-pointer, and Grady let the clock run out without inbounding.

"There were points where we were really down," Langan said. "We did what we needed to do, fought hard and got back. We didn't do a good job of sustaining the lead, but we did a good job getting it."

The Tigers will face Dora today at 3 p.m., while the Bronchos take on top-seeded Texico (11-0) in a 4:30 p.m. tilt.

"I only know of (Nathan) Phipps and (Dalton) Thatcher," Langan said, "and I know they can play. We're going to try to make them beat us from the outside."

Melrose 66, Dora 22

Apparently, the Buffaloes weren't happy being the No. 4 seed, and they spent the afternoon taking it out on the fifth-seeded Coyotes.

Senior Jordan Jasso scored 24 points to lead Melrose, with 13 coming in the first half as the Buffaloes built a 38-6 halftime advantage.

Haiden Padgett scored six points to lead the Coyotes, who didn't get a field goal until the second quarter and finished with just eight on the game.

The Buffaloes are off until Friday, when they face the Grady-Texico winner in a 5:45 p.m. semifinal at Greyhound Arena.

In Thursday's other games, second-seeded Fort Sumner will battle the Floyd at 7:30 p.m. — with that winner playing Logan 2:15 p.m. Friday at Greyhound Arena.

Tatum will face San Jon today at 6 p.m. in the THS auxiliary gym.