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Texico cruises past Portales behind big night from Phipps

PORTALES — Texico's Nathan Phipps was just too much for the Portales Rams to handle in Saturday night's boys basketball showdown. The 6-foot-5 big man scored 25 points to lead his Wolverines to a 77-53 rout of the Rams.

"He's solid all the way around. He's been playing since he was 5," Wolverines coach Ty Thatcher said of Phipps. "He doesn't look like he's as agile as he is, but his hands are really solid. Nathan's a great kid; he works hard and he uses his body well."

Texico (3-0) led 20-19 midway through the second quarter, when Cole Rohrbach dished it Phipps for the lay-in. Dalton Thatcher then sunk a 3-pointer, before Phipps added another layup.

Portales (0-2), however, would answer with a pair of deep 3's from Tyrese Dawson, cutting the deficit to 27-25. But, Texico once again went on a run — this time, 10-0. Thatcher sunk another triple, before Skyler Davis hit a trey of his own to extend the Wolverine lead to 12 with just 1:27 to play in the half.

Texico would take a 38-27 lead into the half, and then, after more than two scoreless minutes from both sides, the Wolverines picked up where they left off to end the first half. Baskets from Phipps, Thatcher and Davis extended the Texico advantage to 17.

Phipps would then add eight-straight points, early in the fourth quarter. Phipps hit a pair of free throws, a short jumper, a putback off of a missed shot and another pair of free throws to help put Texico up by 22. Eventually, the Wolverine lead got as high as 28 points.

Coming into the season, Rams coach Rickie McBroom was concerned about his post play, and Phipps succeeded in exposing that on Saturday night.

"We're gonna have to make some adjustments, obviously," McBroom said. "We'll have to try and figure that out. (Phipps is) a good post man. We can defend better than we did, I think. But we just gotta keep working. We're gonna be OK — I believe that — it's just gonna take a lot of hard work."

In the early going, the Rams went on a 9-2 run to take a four-point lead. Both sides played a bit out of control, as turnovers and errant passes began to add up. Portales, however, struggled to consistently find its shooting touch, and along with a lack of rebounding, Texico managed to take advantage.

Texico would go on a 7-2 run to end the first quarter, as a Luke Phipps layup was followed by a Nathan Phipps 3-pointer at the buzzer, to give the Wolverines a 14-13 lead after one period.

From there, Texico never trailed. Besides Nathan Phipps' 25 points, Thatcher had 19 and Paden McDermid added 13 of his own. Portales was led by Dawson's 18 points and Rico Diaz' 12 point night.

For Portales, after a 72-55 loss at Roswell to open the season, a 24-point home-opening loss was not exactly what the Rams had hoped for. "We just need to get in the gym and practice, and get better at what we do," McBroom said. "Right now, we're not executing very well on either end of the floor. We just got a lot of work to do, and we just got to keep moving forward."

As for Texico, while the season is still young, 2017-18 already looks very promising. For Coach Thatcher, his team's key to success will come down to whether they can beat some of the other powerhouses in 3A, such as Pecos.

"Pecos just lost for the first time in 29 games, and won a state title last year," Thatcher said. "Our goal is to get a shot at them, similar to (how) Portales wants a shot at Hope (Christian). I think that we can get there and see what happens. They don't have an answer for Nathan Phipps. I think if we get to that point, I like our odds."