Tucumcari boys take non-district losses

The Tucumcari boys basketball team took it on the chin last week with non-district losses to two traditionally tough opponents, Texico and Bosque.

On Thursday, the Rattlers traveled to Albuquerque and fell to a hot-shooting Bosque squad, 71-48.

Bosque, which defeated Tucumcari the week before during a much closer championship game of the West Las Vegas tournament, improved to 4-1.

Andrew Henderson-Clark scored 25 points to lead Tucumcari.

Bosque stormed to a 37-20 lead by intermission. The Bobcats sank 10 3-point shots during the game.

"That's what they do, is shoot threes," Tucumcari coach John Span said of Bosque. "It was one of those nights where they were on. If they shoot the ball the way they shot against us, they'll beat a lot of people.

"We missed some free throws, missed some layups. And we didn't get some scoring out of people we need to get more scoring out of."

On Dec. 7, Tucumcari frittered away a lead in the second half and lost at Texico 43-40.

The Rattlers led 23-14 at intermission but were outscored 29-17 the rest of the way. Six-foot-3 Cade Figg led the Wolverines' charge with eight of his team-high 15 points in fourth quarter.

"Their big kid, he had two or three threes in the fourth quarter, which was huge," Span said. "We didn't get a hand in his face; we should be contesting those shots.

"We didn't score and they did score late in the game, and that was the difference in the ballgame," Span added.

Curtis Gonzales scored 16 points to lead Tucumcari, and Henderson-Clark added 14.

Texico improved to 1-1.

Tucumcari ended the week with a 2-3 record.

Span said his team missed too many free throws and layups during the week.

"We've got to make layups," he said. "I don't know if we were worried about our shots getting blocked or what.

"And we're turning the ball over too much. The passes we're needing to make, they're not happening. And sometimes we're making very good passes and the person on the other end isn't catching them."

The Rattlers' next game is against Tohatchi (3-3) at 2 p.m. Thursday during the opening round of the Citizens Bank Classic tournament in Texico.