Wolverines split with Santa Rosa

TEXICO — Saturday was Feb. 1, when high school basketball games get all the more important.

In other words — kinda-sorta crunch time.

And it was not a good start to the month for Texico’s boys basketball team, which got crunched by Santa Rosa 67-48 at Texico High School on Saturday night.

Already trailing by 13 late in the first quarter and still down by 11 at the start of the second, Texico was never able to climb back into it, never able to shave the deficit to single digits again, and absorbed its first District 7-2A loss as a result.

The Wolverines hope crunch time goes better as the month progresses.

“We just know from experience, we have one of the better districts in this state,” Texico head coach Craig Cook said. “And with Santa Rosa having about six seniors right now, and Pecos having about 10 to 12, our guys have gotta learn and they gotta learn quick. It’s that time of year. Yeah, we feel the heat. Yeah, we want to make sure that we try to get through this district with as many wins as possible, because that’s the big seeding purpose in the end.”

Texico was weary, coming off consecutive three-game weeks. And the Wolverines had been 5-0 during that stretch — part of a six-game overall win streak — heading into Saturday night. But the streak ended with a thud against Santa Rosa, dropping the Wolverines to 1-1 district, 13-5 overall. The Lions, meanwhile, earned their first district win of the season, improving to 1-1 in district play, 15-6 overall.

“They executed everything better than we executed our stuff; that’s what it boils down to,” Cook said. “They came in with a game plan, and you could tell they were going to stick to it all the way. And our kids were shy with our game plan.”

It was already 20-7 Santa Rosa late in the first quarter. By quarter’s end, Texico had only closed to within 20-9.

“We were lucky,” Santa Rosa head coach Frank Ortiz said. “We hit some shots early, that really helped. And I thought that they (Texico) had opportunities that they didn’t come through on. So we hit some shots early and they didn’t, and that’s what tipped it for us.”

And it kept on tipping into the second quarter, when junior forward Ricardo Chavez hit layups on consecutive Santa Rosa possessions to make it a 24-9 game. In between those Chavez baskets Texico’s luck wasn’t changing, as Wolverines junior guard Gabriel Bailey drove for a layup attempt that looked good before skipping off the front iron.

That pattern, the pattern of Santa Rosa being able to score more consistently than Texico, continued. The lead became 30-13, 32-13, then went into 20-plus territory when Joe Lucero canned a right-corner trey to give the Lions a 35-13 lead with 1:40 remaining in the half.

A free throw by Santa Rosa freshman Andres Madrid with 1:09 to go in the half gave the Lions a 36-13 lead, and they were still up big, 36-18, at the break.

Texico did get the margin down to 40-26, thanks to an 8-4 run capped by a Bailey trey less than midway through the third quarter. But Santa Rosa pushed it right back to 18 on its next two possessions, thanks to a short jumper by Martin Madrid, which he soon followed with a steal that set up a possession ended by Seth Cordova’s bank shot, making it a 44-26 game.

Still, Texico kept fighting and had closed to within 47-34 by the third quarter’s end. It had been a 47-31 Santa Rosa advantage late in the third, but Texico’s Luke Phipps was fouled while hitting a short, driving one-hander along the baseline, then sank the ensuing free throw with 9.9 seconds left in the quarter.

Just 49 seconds into the fourth, junior post David Davalos knocked down 1-of-2 foul shots, bringing Texico within just 12. Freshman Jahvon Askew then came up with a steal that gave the Wolverines a chance to close within 10, maybe even nine. However, Texico’s bad luck returned, and an off-balance layup attempt by Askew wouldn’t fall.

Texico did eventually come a little closer, 47-36, but a fast-break layup from the Lions’ Shawn Agar, a Texico turnover, and then a rightside jumper from Agar, quickly made it a 15-point game. And Santa Rosa remained in control, picking up some momentum to carry into the new week.

“Every win is momentum for these high school kids,” Ortiz said. “Kids just love to win. Any time they win a game, whether it’s by one or it’s by 20, they don’t care. They’re just looking for that win, and of course it could be momentum. And hopefully we’ll get enough to get a little bit better.”

As for Texico, even though it’s February, it’s still very early in the month.

“If we can step up and start learning from here on out and take care of these problems that we have right now, then when it comes down to tournament time in the end, we faced two of the better teams in the state (Santa Rosa and Pecos),” Cook said. “And we’re going to make sure we learn from that, we’re going to use that going into the tournament to make those adjustments, to minimize the mistakes that we’ve made in our district play.”

The Lions sleep tonight

Saturday’s late-afternoon girls game at Texico High School went much better for Wolverines basketball, as the Lady Wolverines breezed past Santa Rosa 57-27.

As a result, Texico reached the .500 mark — improving to 9-9 overall — but more importantly improved to 2-0 in District 7-2A.

The Lady Wolverines held Santa Rosa to five points in each of the first two quarters, while scoring double-digit (10, 14) points of their own during that span, enabling them to take a 24-10 halftime lead.

Texico outscored Santa Rosa 15-4 in the third quarter, breaking the game wide open. When the Lady Wolverines’ victory was official, Santa Rosa had dropped to 8-13 overall, 0-2 district.

Though Texico’s Ashley Hill did not score in the first quarter, she wound up leading all scorers with 15 points.

Rachel Phipps added 11 points for the Lady Wolverines. Santa Rosa’s Elyse Chavez also scored 11 — eight in the fourth quarter — to pace the Lady Lions.

Both Texico teams return to action this Friday, with road games at Pecos.