Texico girls complete 6-0 run through district

TEXICO — Prior to Friday night's Tucumcari-Texico girls basketball game, the laptop tasked with playing the national anthem malfunctioned and churned out what sounded like hoe-down music, followed by some Zeppelin.

The Texico High School crowd turned toward one section of the bleachers and chanted, "Mil-ton! Mil-ton!" A guy named Milton Brown hustled down to the scorer's table, grabbed a microphone and knocked his impromptu, acapella version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" out of the park to the crowd's delight.

That was a microcosm of the game played by Texico's girls team — a few hiccups at the beginning and a satisfied home crowd at the end. Despite a very slow start that included missed field goals and free throws, even a turnover here or there, the Lady Wolverines wound up winning 54-32 to cap a perfect run through the District 5-3A regular season.

It ended quite well, but only after a first quarter that saw Texico (22-3, 6-0) score one point through midway, three points through the first 5 1/2 minutes, six points until three seconds remained in the quarter, and eight points in the quarter overall.

"I wish I could say why we had such a slow start," Texico head coach Richard Luscombe said. "It seemed like everything we did was so difficult. ... We just couldn't get shots to go down."

Texico guard Baylee Sours took a glass-half-full approach to her team's early offensive woes.

"We got out and played good defense and got some crucial shots that helped us build momentum," she said.

Sours was right about that defense. While the Lady Wolves' offense was scoring those eight first-quarter points, their defense was holding Tucumcari to zero in that period. It was the first of three straight quarters in which Texico kept the Lady Rattlers under double digits.

And, the offense picked up for both teams in the second quarter. Aliyah Herrera scored Tucumcari's first points on a field goal early in the period. Though Sours answered quickly with two of her game-high 21 to make it a 10-2 game, Tucumcari did close to within 11-6.

The Lady Rattlers, though, drew no closer than 13-7. Sours knocked down a pair of foul shots to make it an eight-point game, immediately followed by a steal and layup from Jasmine Davalos that put Texico up 17-7. Texico's lead was never single digits again.

The Lady Wolverines were on their way to a decisive victory and their 16th-straight win.

"That makes a big difference, confidence-wise," Luscombe said. "And then when the (state) seedings come out, because district champs are rewarded in the seedings, that makes a big difference."

"Very pleased, very pleased," Sours said. "We're picking it up and we're at the point of the season where everything needs to come together. And I truly believe it is."