Texico boys moving on

TEXICO — The Grady Bronchos were hoping to succeed in playing the 'David' role against Texico's 'Goliath' in Thursday's Eastern Plains Athletic Conference Tournament boys basketball quarterfinal game. However, the Wolverines proved that sometimes Goliath does in fact prevail, as they dominated from start to finish in a 77-30 rout in their own Texico High School gym.

"I thought the kids came out and played pretty solid for the most part. Execution is always what the coaches want the kids to play, and also get good shots," Texico coach Ty Thatcher said. "A lot of them love to get down and play defense, and I thought we did that at times. We (also) had some breakdowns — not the greatest communication game. (But overall) I thought that they did a pretty good job."

Texico (12-0) remains perfect on the season, and will now advance to today's semifinal at Greyhound Arena on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University. The Wolverines will face 1A power Melrose at 5:45, in what should be perhaps the best matchup of the day. In other Friday action, Elida takes on San Jon at 9 a.m., with Fort Sumner playing Logan at 2:15.

Any chance that the Bronchos had of playing spoiler to an undefeated Texico squad pretty much went right out the window soon after tip-off, as the physically imposing 3A Wolverines quickly got out to a 16-2 lead. Big man Nathan Phipps dished it out to Cole Rohrbach for a bucket late in the first quarter, before Phipps added a jumper in the closing seconds to help Texico carry an 18-4 lead into the second quarter.

Phipps was far from done. The 6-foot-5 center made four consecutive free throws to open the second period, before knocking in a putback to extend the lead to 20. Phipps ultimately made all six of his free throws for the game, and added six buckets to finish with a team-high 18 points.

As for Grady (7-6), early frustrations with execution carried over into the second half, as the Bronchos will now play Floyd in the fifth-place game on Saturday at 9 a.m. "We didn't take care of the ball, and that's why the score was so out of hand," Grady coach Jonathon Langan explained. "If we take care of the ball and do the things our offense has taught us to do, I think we compete with them a little more."

As far as the tournament itself, Langan went on to say, "I like the EPAC because we get to see other district opponents like Elida, Melrose and Floyd. We get to see them or watch them play, and so, that helps us out later on in the season."

The Wolverines will now take on Melrose (7-1), who features former Texico assistant Kevin Lackey as the Buffaloes' head coach. Thatcher says he looks forward to the matchup, as it's been a long time since he's last gotten to coach against his former right-hand man.

For Thatcher and company, today and Saturday's games at ENMU are thrilling, as it gives people a chance to see the area's newest powerhouse in action for perhaps the first time all season long. "I think anytime that you have a 10-team tournament, everybody's looking forward to that," Thatcher said.

"They used to talk about a lot of the times that the eventual state champions come out of this tournament," Thatcher said, "and it prepares you to play on the big stage at Eastern, and a bigger gym with the open environment. That's always fun for the kids, and I think they enjoy that big stage, and a lot of people come out. It's kind of a post-holiday-type tournament, so there's a lot of people that possibly haven't seen your team play. As a Texico team, you get a lot of people who really want to beat you pretty bad. You definitely have a target on your back with a Texico uniform on."