Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Tucumcari point guard Curtis Gonzales takes the ball upcourt after stealing it from New Mexico Military Institute's Emi Herrera during a district game at the Snake Pit on Feb. 15.
The Tucumcari boys basketball squad earned its first district win - against the first-place team, no less - in surprisingly dominant fashion in a 40-25 decision over visiting New Mexico Military Institute on Feb. 15.
The Rattlers (6-16, 1-3) took an eight-point lead at intermission and expanded on it much of the second half, handing the Colts (5-11, 2-1) their first district loss. Tucumcari did it without senior Dominick Jasper, who was serving a one-game suspension after being ejected the previous game.
The victory proved to be a satisfying one for Tucumcari coach John Span, who'd been looking for a performance like that much of the season. The fact his team did it in its final home game of the season made it sweeter.
"We looked like a different team, didn't we?" he said. "We just did a better job of executing and taking care of the ball."
Meanwhile, NMMI coach Connor Williamson, clearly unhappy with his team's performance, was tight-lipped.
"They had more energy than us. They seemed hungrier," he said.
Andrew Henderson-Clark led Tucumcari with 17 points, while Curtis Gonzales added 13. Nate Griego and Santiago Montano combined for 10 points in the second half to help the Rattlers maintain and even increase their lead.
Tucumcari was scheduled to play its first-round district tournament game Tuesday night at Dexter. The tourney's title game was scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday at NMMI.
Tucumcari went to what Span called a "pass and cut" offense that spread the floor and required patience. It led to many high-percentage shots near the basket.
"I told them, 'Keep working it, keep working it, and when we get a mismatch, let's take it,'" he said.
Span also tweaked his team's defense in the second quarter to frustrate the Colts.
"They kept hitting the middle and then kept hitting the guy on that back side," he said. "We made an adjustment, and it helped us."
Span also said his team's defensive rebounding was excellent.
"We also limited them to one shot instead of three, four, five shots like that last time we were over there," he said. "That was huge. If they're shooting more than you're shooting, their chances of winning are pretty good."
One longstanding problem Tucumcari didn't resolve was its foul shooting. The Rattlers went 5-of-13 from the free throw line.
"Those can come back to bite us," Span said. "I don't understand how we can go to the free throw line and not get any free throws. We work on them all the time. We'll continue to work on them."
Tucumcari was scheduled to face NMMI again Tuesday night at Roswell in a first-round district tournament game. The winner of that will play at top-seeded Dexter at 6 p.m. Friday for the tourney title. (Tuesday's game was after the Quay County Sun's deadline.)
Before the game, Tucumcari honored its winter-sports seniors, which included Henderson-Clark, Griego, Jasper and Ricardo Martinez. Other seniors feted were Nathaniel Aragon and Reyes Garcia of the wrestling program; Illiana Reid, Izabela Reid and Elena Gutierrez of girls basketball and Madison Dysart and Angela Holbrook as basketball managers.
