History repeats itself

PORTALES — Any team that wins three consecutive tournament championships expects to win a fourth straight.

But expecting doesn’t guarantee it. The only guarantee comes from what the scoreboard says the team has earned at game’s end.

And the Greyhound Arena scoreboard Saturday night said that Texico’s girls basketball team had done it, had earned a fourth consecutive EPAC Tournament crown by defeating Melrose 46-35.

Only once before — from 1998-2001 — has a Texico girls team won four straight EPAC championships, so the 2016-19 Lady Wolverines propelled themselves into very elite company, with this season’s team completing the four-peat.

“It feels really good,” Texico head coach Richard Luscombe said. “The kids want to be in championship games and they want to have a chance to be at the top.”

“It’s pretty special. It’s a good feeling to go out on top like that,” Lady Wolverines senior guard Baylee Sours said. “It’s not every day that a team can win four in a row, so it’s a huge accomplishment.”

“It’s a good feeling,” Texico junior forward Ashley Hill said. “I feel like everyone always comes after Texico and it’s always going to be a tough game no matter what team it is. So it’s pretty good.”

For Melrose, getting to that last game was an achievement, too.

“Yeah, we haven’t been in the EPAC final in three years,” Lady Buffaloes head coach Caleb King said, “so it was good to get back there.”

And once there, Melrose didn’t make it easy for Texico. Though the Lady Buffs trailed 12-7 after one quarter and 25-16 at halftime, they charged back to make it 25-20 early in the third.

Texico wasn’t able to score on its next possession and on the other end, though Melrose couldn’t score either and the Lady Wolverines reclaimed possession with a defensive rebound, they turned it back over with a travel.

Melrose was poised to sneak within three points, maybe two, of the reigning champs with plenty of time remaining.

“The momentum is going to change a little bit in that kind of game,” Luscombe said. “Melrose has got a really quality team, they’re going to make runs at you.”

“Melrose is definitely a good team,” Sours said. “So we knew once it got to be 25-20 we were going to have to pick it up.”

And they did when Hill abruptly squashed the Melrose possession with a steal, beginning a Texico possession that ended with a Jasmine Davalos trey — her only points of the game, as it turned out — that swung the momentum back in the Lady Wolverines’ favor and gave them a 28-20 advantage.

Texico stretched to 30-21, before Melrose picked up some steam of its own, when Nataley Mondragon scored five straight to make it a four-point game.

Again, though, Texico squelched the Lady Buffaloes’ momentum, this time when Sours drew a foul on the Lady Wolves’ next possession and hit both free throws with 57 seconds left in the third quarter. 27 seconds later, Hill sank a foul shot and missed the second, but Riley Thompson kept it alive for Texico with an offensive rebound, then finished the possession with a field goal to hand the Lady Wolverines a 35-26 lead.

Melrose still had some life, however, as Mondragon heaved in a three from in front of the scorer’s table just before the third-quarter buzzer, making it a 35-29 game with a quarter to play.

After the teams exchanged baskets early in the fourth — on a long two from Texico’s Rachel Phipps and a Mondragon layup — it was again a six-point difference, this time 37-31. But from there, Texico seized control.

On the possession after Mondragon’s basket, Hill canned a jumper to make it an eight-point contest, and when Melrose’s next possession yielded no points, the Lady Wolverines came right back down on the fast break and got a layup from Hill to go ahead 43-31.

Hill added a pair of free throws and an inside bucket, stretching Texico’s late fourth-quarter lead to 14 on her way to scoring a game-high 20 points.

“We had to execute,” Hill said of the late-game run. “Be smart on offense.”

It was soon over. Texico was again a four-time EPAC champ.

“A lot of pride, a lot of pride,” Sours said. “It’s a good feeling for sure.”

Texico expects the EPAC title will be a springboard to a strong regular-season finish and deep postseason run.

“If you can’t get momentum from an EPAC championship, something’s wrong with you,” Luscombe said. “We will build from this.”

Melrose hopes to do the same.

“We learned situations and what we’re supposed to do in certain situations,” King said. “We learned certain things that we can’t get away with, like reaching and that type of stuff. And all that helps us for the state tournament. I think that’s why the small schools on our side of the state are so successful at the state-tournament level, just because we play really good schools and we learn what you’ve got to do to win.”

Logan 65, Tatum 47 (third-place) — Logan may not have lived up to its No. 1 tournament seeding after getting bounced by fourth-ranked Melrose in Friday’s semifinal round, but the Lady Longhorns looked more the part when they played back to third by routing third-ranked Tatum in Saturday’s consolation game.

Logan took control early, jumping to a 27-8 lead by the first quarter’s end. At halftime, the Lady Longhorns held a comfortable 40-17 advantage, and were up 58-33 by the end of the third quarter.

Logan’s Karli Webb led all scorers with 20 points. Teammates Harlie Roach (16) and Jordan Hines (11) joined Webb in double figures.

Celeste Jimenez paced Tatum with 11 points.xxx