Texico girls fall in pair of nailbiters

TEXICO — As opening nights go, Tuesday’s could have gone better for the Texico girls basketball team.

And yet, head coach Richard Luscombe wasn’t overly disappointed. Considering it was just one game in and his team had to replace some key starters from last season and wasn’t even at full strength Tuesday, Luscombe thought losing only 37-35 to Tucumcari at Texico High School, especially after trailing by seven at halftime, wasn’t too bad a start.

“With the team that we have this year and with everything that’s happened — the (player) changeover, and having three kids injured that didn’t play tonight — overall I’m happy with what we got done. I think we’re a little bit out of shape right now and our conditioning showed at certain parts of the game. ... I knew we were going to struggle in some spots, just because of mostly inexperience. We’ve got a lot of kids playing that saw very limited to no minutes on the varsity last year, so when that situation happens, this is a bigger stage, and sometimes they’re ready, sometimes they’re not.”

Tucumcari has had its own player turnover and its own inexperience. So Lady Rattlers head coach Gary Hittson was pleased that his team won in general, especially on opening night.

“We lost four seniors last year,” Hittson said, “and I’m starting a freshman and a sophomore this year — Reece Goldston (sophomore guard/forward) and Alexus Lafferty (freshman point guard). It was a tough game, but they held their own out there.”

Tucumcari does have some experienced players, including 5’7” senior forward Aaliyah Brown, who drove for what turned out to be the game-winning layup with roughly 30 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. Brown slashed in from the right side, shot, and saw the ball roll around and in, giving Tucumcari a 37-34 lead.

“We were supposed to just run five out, wait until something was open,” Brown said. “But I knew I could beat her, so I went in for the shot.”

Texico forward Riley Rohrbach sank the first of two free-throw attempts with 19.9 seconds left in the fourth, and after Rohrbach missed the second attempt, Lafferty scrambled for the rebound. Lafferty was fouled and sent to the line with 15 seconds left, but missed the front end of a 1-and-1, which was rebounded by Hill.

After a Texico timeout with 9.4 seconds left, the Lady Wolverines ran one more play, which ended with Hill having to take a hurried shot that missed. Lafferty grabbed the rebound to preserve Tucumcari’s victory.

Momentum swings

Both teams, despite their youth, played impressively at different points of the night — Tucumcari in the first half when jumping out to a 19-12 lead by the break, Texico early in the second half when quickly erasing that seven-point deficit and pulling ahead.

Ashley Hill’s inside shot on Texico’s first possession of the new half made it 19-14, and after a Rachel Phipps defensive rebound on the other end, the possession she created ended when her three-point shot attempt bounced home to slice the difference to 19-17.

After a Tucumcari turnover, Hill scored on the other end off a slick feed from Phipps to tie the game at 19, just two minutes into the third quarter.

And on the ensuing Rattlers possession, a Hill steal and layup handed Texico a 21-19 lead, making it a 9-0 run to start the third.

Tucumcari tied it with a pair of Jasmine Jones free throws as 5:19 remained in the quarter, and took a 22-21 lead when Jones was back at the line 33 seconds later and went 1-for-2 from there.

With just under four minutes left in the third period Hill gave Texico a 23-22 advantage off another Phipps assist, but two minutes later Brown put Tucumcari back up by one.

The game stayed close into the fourth quarter, and was tied 27-all just inside the final period’s seven-minute mark before a 5-0 Rattlers run — including a Jones bank shot, and an Ashley Shipley steal that began a possession ending with a Jones trey — made it a 32-27 game.

Again, though, Texico raced back to wipe out another deficit, this time thanks to a Phipps baseline jumper, and after a Rattlers turnover, a left-corner three from Phipps to tie the game at 32.

A Jones field goal and Goldston free throw put Tucumcari ahead 35-32 by the fourth quarter’s three-minute mark, and after that score held for a while, the difference was shaved to 35-34 by a smooth leftside jumper from Phipps with less than a minute and a half to go in the fourth.

About a minute after that, Brown’s layup gave the Lady Rattlers a 37-34 cushion.

After Tucumcari held on for the 37-35 win, Brown had a few moments to savor it.

“It was big,” she said. “We don’t beat Texico too often; we’ve only beaten them one other time that we’ve played them. And it was kind of nerve-racking because we lost some big players from last year. But it’s great, especially since this was our first game.”

Close loss, big loss

The Lady Wolverines were back at home Thursday night against Fort Sumner. And again, Texico suffered a close loss, this time 39-38.

But aside from falling to 0-2, the Lady Wolverines saw Rohrbach carried off the court after suffering a left leg injury just before halftime. She had just scored an inside bucket to give Texico a 20-17 lead when the injury occurred.

“It’s a situation where we just had a little bit of bad luck right there at halftime,” Luscombe said. “We get Riley hurt; she was playing pretty well. ... I never thought we’d be in a position where we were relying on freshmen to handle the ball. But they’ll grow up and hopefully mature.”

Fort Sumner, meanwhile, was playing its season opener, so pulling out a close one to start things off was OK with Vixens head coach Ben Segura.

“I think we’re growing up,” Segura said. “We’re still a young team, but we’ve got a year of experience under our belts. A year ago we would’ve found a way to lose that one, and I’m just proud that we were able to step in and finish and make plays that we needed to make to win.”

The game was tied at 28 as the third quarter ended, and a Phipps trey from the left corner gave the Lady Wolverines a three-point lead.

They were still up three, 34-31, before consecutive baskets from Fort Sumner’s Keeli West and Megan Oberg gave the Vixens a one-point lead.

Hill answered quickly in transition to lift Texico back ahead, 36-35, but with 2:05 left in the fourth quarter, a long two by Jordan Wilton put Fort Sumner back up by one.

With just over a minute to go, Hill sank a turnaround in traffic, handing Texico a 38-37 edge, but with 40 seconds remaining, Oberg hit 1-of-2 free throws to tie the game.

An Avery Cavett steal reclaimed possession for the Vixens, soon leading to Oberg getting fouled with 19.2 seconds left. Oberg hit 1-of-2, making it a 39-38 game.

Oberg’s miss on the second attempt was rebounded by Hill. It came down to the final 1.7 seconds when the ball went out of bounds off Fort Sumner. Texico’s Claire McDaniel inbounded to Hill, who had to rush a shot that missed at the buzzer.

Texico plays in the Farwell tournament this coming week, while Fort Sumner visits Santa Rosa on Tuesday.