Pecos denies Texico perfect season

ALBUQUERQUE — There's no shame in a red trophy, but it wasn't quite the hue Texico's boys basketball team had in mind.

The top-seeded Wolverines wound up taking home the red one — awarded to state-tournament runners up — after losing Saturday morning's Class 3A state championship game 58-44 to third-seeded Pecos, which successfully defended its state crown and bagged another blue trophy with a dominant fourth quarter at Albuquerque's Dreamstyle Arena.

Texico had entered Saturday's game with a 29-0 record, looking to join the 1972 Miami Dolphins and '76 Indiana men's basketball team among the ranks of undefeated champions. The Wolverines instead joined the 2007 New England Patriots on the list of great teams that came up one game shy of perfection.

Win number 30 proved just a bit too difficult for the Wolves to secure. Not getting one in the loss column earlier in the season may have added some pressure as the games wore on and the wins mounted.

"I'm sure it's in the back of the guys' minds at times, knocking on wood through the last month and a half, continuing to try to be humble and work on the things that they needed to work on to play quality basketball," Texico head coach Ty Thatcher said. "We put some games on the schedule with Lovington and Ruidoso and Portales, teams that definitely make you play quality basketball. And I think people thought, those are the games that are built in to possibly drop a game and learn how to play from behind, and these guys were resilient through those games. And it came to that point in the season where they couldn't afford to drop one; they became very, very important games. I think there was a little bit of pressure on some of these guys."

Pressure or not, the first thing Texico senior post Nathan Phipps thought about when the Wolverines' first and last loss of the season had sunk in was their brotherhood.

"Just love," he said, "love for the guys, love for the coaches, love for the run that we had. It was a lot of fun. Right now it kinda sucks, but when you look back, you'll remember the guys."

Those guys were embroiled in a much better state championship game than the final score indicated. In the game's waning minutes, the Wolverines were playing from behind and had to get into run-and-chuck mode offensively. And most of those chucks weren't falling. On the other end, Texico had to foul, allowing Pecos to steadily increase its lead.

Most of the game, though, was quite a tussle. In the first half alone there were seven lead changes, four ties, six one-point leads and seven two-point leads. By the third quarter's end there had been 10 lead changes, 10 one-point leads and 12 two-point leads in the game overall.

Texico, which had held as much as a 30-25 lead in the third, was still up 37-35 when the fourth quarter began. The Wolverines were eight minutes away from 30-0. Eight minutes away from that blue trophy.

The fourth quarter, however, was simply all Pecos. The Panthers opened that period on a 12-0 run, enabling them to take control. Senior guard Mario Archuleta started the surge with a trey on Pecos' quarter-opening possession, marking the game's 11th and final lead change. A three from the Panthers' Anthony Armijo soon followed, giving his team a 41-37 advantage.

Archuleta sank two free throws with 5:21 to go, making it a six-point game, the largest margin for either team up to that juncture. Archuleta added an inside field goal, and with 3:24 left, he hit two more foul shots, stretching Pecos' lead to 47-37.

It had turned from a back-and-forth game to double digits that quickly. From there on, the game was down to that run-and-chuck-then-foul-on-the-other-end point for the Wolves, whose undefeated championship season suddenly appeared lost.

"That's a very good team, undefeated coming into that game," Pecos head coach Ira Harge Jr. said. "For 32 minutes, we were able to prevail."

29-1 is still an impressive record. But Texico would surely trade it for Pecos' 28-3.

Due to some reshuffling, the teams will be district rivals next season.

"I foresee a lot of battles between Pecos and Texico down the road," Harge Jr. said.

Perhaps next year will end differently for the Wolverines, and it's definitely going to start with a different feeling.

Starting point guard Dalton Thatcher will be back for his senior season, as will dependable scorer Skyler Davis, making them two of six players eligible to return. But the Wolves lose their frontcourt standout Phipps along with six other seniors, vital cogs that will need to somehow be replaced.

Phipps, for one, is going to miss high school basketball.

"The guys," he said. "The bond that you create."