Rattlers end season in semifinals

The Tucumcari boys basketball team ended its season in the semifinals Thursday of the District 4-3A tournament with a 63-54 loss at New Mexico Military Institute.

The Rattlers (9-16) gave up 10 unanswered points early in the first quarter and struggled to overcome that deficit the rest of the game, coach John Span said.

"I thought we played well enough to win," he said. "We had the shots; we just couldn't put them in."

Tucumcari also was hampered by 22 turnovers, compared to NMMI's 15, Span said.

Span said Tucumcari cut its deficit to two in the fourth quarter.

"They made some big shots down the stretch," he said. "We had five or six possessions to tie it up or go ahead, but we couldn't hit the shots or threw it away.

"Their big kid hit two big threes late in the ballgame we didn't think he would; that was huge at that time. I didn't expect him to go behind the arch. We just didn't pick him up (defensively), and he made us pay."

Jesus Ramos led the Rattlers with 26 points. Seniors Alexander Lujan and Robbie Hartmann scored nine and eight points respectively in their final game.

"Our seniors, I'm proud of them. They worked hard, they committed to our program," Span said. "They showed leadership. They both had decent games last night. They had a tough time (with the loss). We wanted to at least extend the season. But it comes to an end when you don't make the plays you need to."

The Colts, ranked 10th in Class 3A last week by MaxPreps.com, improved to 14-7. Tularosa defeated NMMI 54-45 on Saturday to capture the district tournament title.

Tucumcari didn't qualify for the Class 3A tournament. District rivals Tularosa (19-7) and NMMI earned eighth and 10th seeds, respectively. Sandia Prep (20-8) earned the No. 1 seed.

Tucumcari improved its win total from last season's 5-20 campaign but endured growing pains because of a young roster. An early-season injury to guard Curtis Gonzales also hampered the team.

"When you're trying to run your offense with young kids, you're going to make a lot of mistakes," Span said. "We lost Curtis; he could handle the ball, and he also was scoring into double digits with us. That really hurt us when we lost a ball handler. If you don't have a lot of depth, you take people out of the equation, it can change things a little bit.

"Other than that, I thought we were going to be competitive, I thought we would be good, because we had a good summer. I think our team really, really improved and began to understand the concept of playing together. We just had to do a better job of taking care of the ball."

Span said he held optimism about next season's team.

"There's a lot of potential," he said. "It all depends what they do in the offseason - lifting weights, spending time working on their game. You can go to basketball camps all you want to; that just gives you information and shows you what you can do. But you have to come back from those and work on those things and get them down. Some people think if you go to these big basketball camps, all of a sudden they're going to be a big player. It doesn't work that way; you have to put in the work to improve those skills."

Tucumcari 65, Dexter 52

After a slow start, a full-court press gave Tucumcari the fuel it needed to rally to a come-from-behind 65-52 victory over Dexter in the opening round of the district tournament Feb. 25, the Rattlers' last home game this season at the Snake Pit.

Ramos led the Rattlers (9-15) with 18 points. But it was Dominick Jasper's 11 points late in the second quarter and early in the third that sparked Tucumcari to two crucial scoring runs.

Tucumcari trailed Dexter (4-23) as much as 21-12 in the second quarter, and Span felt compelled to turn to his press defense early.

"All the easy shots we had that we missed and the lack of intensity, I could not believe that," he said. "I said in the second half, 'From here on out, we're pressing. If we're going to lose, we're going to leave it on the floor.' The kids really responded; that was the spark."

Dexter struggled to score against the press and committed turnovers. Meanwhile, Jasper scored seven unanswered points - including a 3-pointer - late in the second period to draw Tucumcari within 21-20.

"Late in the first half, they started pressing us, and we didn't do a very good job taking care of the ball," Dexter coach Sonny Duran said. "Hat's off to them and their coach. They did what they were supposed to do."

Jasper added two more buckets during a 12-0 run during the third quarter to give Tucumcari a 32-25 lead it would not relinquish.

Alexander Lujan added 12 points for Tucumcari - all on 3-point shots - and Robbie Hartmann added 10.

Dexter rallied to within 32-31 late in the third quarter. The Rattlers responded with 15 unanswered points - including two straight 3-pointers by Lujan - for a 47-31 lead with 6:52 left.

"With our style of play, we can explode at any time if we make the right choices with the ball," Span said.

Dexter rallied to within 49-44 midway through the final period, but Tucumcari salted the game away with 9-2 run to increase its lead back to double digits.

Span said his team sometimes struggled this year against the depleted Demons, which lost 15 seniors from the previous season.

"I don't know whether it's the matchup or what, but everybody else in the district was able to take it to them and we struggled with them," he said "They play well against us, for some reason."

The loss ended the season for Dexter. Jorge Carrasco led the Demons with 18 points, and Marco Munoz added 16.

"I hope the boys can take this and learn from it," Dexter said. "I thanked the seniors; I told them they laid down the foundation for us to do better later."