Farwell tops Texico in rubber match

TEXICO — Losing your own tournament is far from the world’s end. And the Saturday before Christmas is far from do-or-die time.

But, Texico’s boys basketball team certainly didn’t want to lose its last game before the holiday break, especially not at home, especially not by two points to border rival Farwell.

For Farwell, you could say vice versa about all of the above. The Steers wanted to go into Christmas week by winning a tournament on the road against a border rival. Surviving by two made it that much sweeter.

It happened in Saturday night’s boys final of the Citizens Bank Tournament at Texico Sports Arena, as Farwell downed the Wolverines 31-29, thanks to sophomore Jonathan Mora’s trey with less than 20 seconds to go in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a big win,” Farwell head coach Shane Perkins said after his team improved to 16-1. “I think any time you beat good teams it’s a big win. And winning on the road — we always tell the kids, ‘To win the big games in district and in the playoffs, you’ve got to win in a hostile environment. It’s a lot easier to play at your house.’ The great thing is when we play Texico, with the environment, this is what high school sports are all about. They’re right across the border. They want to beat us, we want to beat them, but we’re all friends when the day’s over.”

“It’s a real big win, real big rivalry,” Mora said. “They won the first game (against Farwell this season) and we beat them in our tournament, so this is the tiebreaker.”

Mora had only five points Saturday night, all in the fourth quarter. But no points anyone scored all game were bigger than Mora’s last three.

Texico’s Luke Phipps had just given his team a 29-28 lead by scoring from the lane in traffic. Less than a minute remained and Farwell needed to come up with something, anything to avoid defeat. Mora provided that something and anything, hitting his three to give Farwell a 31-29 edge with 18 seconds to play.

Mora said he tried to stay cool with the ball in his hands and the game in the balance. No pressure.

“It really didn’t go through my mind,” he said. “I was trying to win the game. I knew what I needed to do to get a three.”

“Basically, we told him, ‘Be aggressive,’” Perkins said. “‘You’ve got to look to score. There are only 20 seconds left, we’re behind.’”

After Mora’s hoop, Texico had plenty of time to get the go-ahead bucket. Dead-aimed swingman Skyler Davis took the shot, but it was off. A wild scramble ensued, as the Wolves tried desperately for a tip-in. They couldn’t get one, though, and Texico had lost for only the second time this season, both times at the hands of Farwell.

“We’ve got to learn from each and every game. We’ve got to use each day to get better,” Texico head coach Ty Thatcher said after his team emerged from Saturday’s game with a 9-2 mark. “It’s disappointing to lose, but in the same sense, we’ll live to fight another day.”

Points in Saturday’s game proved hard to come by. Texico notched the first five of the night before Farwell finally reached the scoreboard with Jackson Jarman’s layup at the 3:05 mark of the first quarter.

A shot by Texico’s Cole Rohrbach hit front iron and bounced in, giving the Wolves a 7-2 edge, which turned out to be their largest lead of the night. They led only 9-7 by quarter’s end, then saw Farwell tie the game 9-9 on Jose Rodriguez’s one-hander in the lane early in the second.

Texico went up 13-9 before Farwell closed the half on a 10-0 run that included, in order — a turnaround by Rodriguez, a steal and layup by Aldo Galvan, an inside bucket from Roberto Trevizo off a Rodriguez dish, a left-corner trey from Ramon Reyes, and a foul shot by Galvan, allowing the Steers to carry a 19-13 lead into the break.

Dalton Thatcher’s left-side trey cut Texico’s deficit to 19-16 early in the third quarter, while kickstarting an 8-0 run that would also include — a foul shot by Phipps, two free throws from Rohrbach, and a putback by Phipps, giving the Wolverines a 21-19 edge.

Texico led 23-21 at the start of the fourth quarter, and was up 24-21 when Jarman sank a left-elbow three to tie it.

Farwell went back into the lead on a Rodriguez bucket inside, and with the score still 26-24 and Texico in possession later in the period, it looked like Jarman had collected a big defensive rebound. But a jump ball was called in Texico’s favor with 1:30 to play in the fourth quarter.

“Ah, I guess they (the refs) had a better angle than I did,” Perkins said with a chuckle. “I don’t want to get in trouble. But that’s the thing, that sometimes on the road they call that and you’ve just got to get over it and play the next play.”

But, ‘the next play’ after Texico had been awarded possession was a Phipps trey that gave the Wolverines a 27-26 advantage.

On the other end, Mora weaved in toward the basket and was fouled while attempting a layup, then sank both free throws to put Farwell ahead 28-27 with 1:01 remaining in the fourth. The stage was set for Phipps’ go-ahead basket and Mora’s game-winner.

“We’ve had a lot of close games — two-point, one-point games — so far this year,” Perkins said. “Our offense doesn’t quit, they keep making plays. We’ve got a bunch of tough kids that are competitors and they want to win, and they’re going to try to find a way to do it.”

Farwell returns to action this Saturday with a home game against Hart. Texico is off until January, and the Wolverines hope by then that they have tucked last Saturday’s loss far away.

“At this age they struggle with confidence,” Ty Thatcher said. “Even the best players, the great players, great scorers ... it’s hard for them to continue to have confidence throughout the course of wins and losses. That’s probably the biggest thing we talked about as far as post-game — the kids having to maintain confidence levels, hit the reset button.”