Prep roundup: Texico sweeps neutral-site games with Loving

TATUM — The Texico and Loving girls basketball teams met in the middle on Saturday, but it was the Lady Wolverines who ended up on top.

Playing at neutral Tatum High School to cut down on travel, Texico slowly pulled away from Loving in the second half and won 54-40, improving to 14-3 in the process.

The Lady Wolves led by a modest 27-22 count at halftime, but stretched that to 38-29 by the third quarter’s end before breaking into a double-digit margin in the fourth.

Two days removed from Thursday’s road win against Logan — a rematch of last Saturday’s EPAC championship game — the Lady Wolves seemed sluggish on Saturday, according to head coach Richard Luscombe.

“We didn’t shoot the ball very well,” he said. “We made some plays, thankfully. We looked like we were a little bit tired today. I don’t know, but we looked like we were a step slow. Maybe coming off the big win Thursday night we had a little bit of a letdown.”

It all ended well, though. Texico’s Maryelle Dickerman led all scorers with 24 points, followed by teammate Baylee Sours with 14, including the game’s only trey.

Chastity Onsurez and Alyssa Carrasco paced Loving (8-3) with 12 points each.

Playing the game closer to home was a welcome relief for both teams.

“That was nice,” Luscombe said. “We didn’t have to make a four-hour trip, either one of us.”

Texico will make a return trip to Tatum on Friday, this time playing the actual Tatum team, with tipoff slated for 5:30 p.m.

Texico trio notches 63 in win — Skyler Davis scored 22 points to lead three Wolverines scoring 20-plus on the day, and Texico pushed its undefeated start to 17 games with a 90-52 rout of Loving Saturday.

Dalton Thatcher scored 21 points and hit all three of the team’s 3-pointers, while post Nathan Phipps notched 20 in the neutral-site game at Tatum High School.

“We had a lot of inside looks early on,” Texico coach Ty Thatcher said. “We got Nathan going early; he had 13 points in the second quarter alone. That opened up things for us, and we weer able to play inside-out.”

Davis has had a handful of 20-point games this season, Thatcher said, but they hadn’t come entirely on drives and free throws like it did Saturday. It’s always a bonus, Thatcher said, when players can hurt a team in different ways.

“Typically when he puts up those numbers,” Thatcher said, “he has some 3-pointers mixed in there.”

The Wolverines will take a few days off before playing a back-to-back this weekend against larger-classification schools. They’re at Lovington Friday and Ruidoso on Saturday.

Melrose cruises by Dexter — Jordan Jasso scored 20 points to lead three in double figures as the Buffs upset the tournament host Demons 71-43.

By the time the Buffaloes were done, it hardly looked like a matchup of 11-win teams coming in.

“They’re a good team,” Melrose coach Kevin Lackey said. “We just put some stuff together. I’m proud of the kids; they executed well tonight.”

Lackey credited the Buffs’ length, both in getting great shots all night on offense and contending shots all night on defense against a Demon squad that normally punishes teams with its 3-point shooting.

“They had us down 8-2 right off the bat. They hit 3s and spread you out with five guards. We called a quick time out, got settled down and went on a huge run. They matched up well with us speed-wise, but we could just pound it in down low. Our bigs did a great job. Jordan Jasso, Tate Sorgen (12 points) and Blake DeVaney (seven) all played well and our guards did a great job getting them the ball.”

Jared Lee added 14 points for the Buffaloes (12-2), who resume District 4-1A play Tuesday at Clovis Christian.