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Texico girls win tournament crown

TEXICO — The Texico girls crowned themselves champions of the Citizens Bank Tournament they hosted, beating Robertson of West Las Vegas, New Mexico, 31-23 on Saturday at Texico High School.

An 11-1 fourth-quarter run that included some tough defense helped the Lady Wolverines rally for the tournament victory while improving to 9-3 on the season.

For the Lady Wolves, it’s nice to end 2017 as a tournament champ.

“Certainly it is,” Texico head coach Richard Luscombe said, “especially playing a team of that caliber. Robertons is a really good team, and we did what we needed to do to get the win. We played really good the second half.”

After a first half that was spotty, including a second quarter that saw Texico get shut out.

“We went through some spots where we didn’t get very many looks at the basket and turned the ball over a little bit,” Luscombe said, “but then we made plays when we needed to make plays.”

The second-quarter drought put Texico in a 13-9 halftime hole. The Lady Wolverines climbed back to within 22-20 by the third quarter’s end. Then came that momentous fourth where the Lady Wolves made it their game.

“We kind of went to some pressure defense,” Luscombe said, “and I thought we did a good job of running our pressure defense and kept them from getting to the basket. And they missed some free throws which helped us out.”

Texico junior Baylee Sours tossed in a game-high 11 points. She was the only player from either team to reach double figures. Aliana Darley paced Robertson (9-2) with eight points.

By winning the tournament championship, Texico gains momentum heading into this coming week’s E-pac Tournament.

“That’s what we talked about. That’ll help us develop a little confidence,” Luscombe said. “We haven’t been consistent, we weren’t consistent tonight. But we were consistent when we needed to be.”

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