Luka Torrez’s selflessness had, oddly, become a problem. The coaches needed to help him see his importance to the team, and how Escalante basketball was at its best when he was taking and knocking down shots.
“I told him, big time players have to take over,” Escalante coach Isaac Royston said. “When your team is struggling, that’s the time that you have to put the team on your back and take over the game.”
The Lobos (12-7, 3-1 in district) took down Peñasco (4-13, 0-4) with Torrez leading the way as the Lobos won 58-45 on Jan. 26, despite by their own admission not being on their best game.
“It’s a win, so we’re happy,” Torrez said. “Lately, we’ve been playing kind of, not bad, but overall it’s not what we expect. We feel like we could always do better.”
Torrez, as a junior, now ranks seventh in the state with 10.3 rebounds per game; teammate Tomas Atencio is eighth in New Mexico averaging 4.6 assists as of Monday.
Last year, Torrez was the lone underclassman regularly playing on a team with four senior starters, including longtime program stars. Now, he finds himself as a team leader and the top option.
“It’s way different,” Royston said. “(Last year) he didn’t really have to take over, because we had the athletes, we had the shooters. Now, he’s got to take that role. At the beginning of the season he wasn’t really relishing that role, because he’s such a non-selfish player. But I was telling him — there’s a difference between being unselfish and selfish, and taking over.”
His leadership has helped the Lobos emerge as a top team and a competitor in the district after a slow start while they tried to find their footing with so much roster turnover.
Escalante had a slow start to the game, falling down 8-0 in the first two minutes, but they quickly rebounded to tie the game before the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, they took their first lead at 19-18, but remained sluggish and trailed by three at halftime.
At halftime, Royston reminded the team of what they needed to do.
“People aren’t going to come in here because it says Escalante and say we’re not going to play ball,” he said. “They’re going to come in here and play you the hardest that they’ve ever played. Because they want to be on top.”
Escalante came out hot after halftime, going on a 14-1 run to take a double-digit lead. Peñasco battled back to within three points in the fourth quarter. Then Torrez made a pair of impressive baskets, Greysen Horan drew a foul on a basket, and rebounded his own miss before finding Torrez for another score, putting the lead back up to 11. The Lobos ultimately won by 13.
Torrez finished the game with 25 points and 16 rebounds. Atencio scored 10 and had eight assists.
The Lobos defeated Mora (10-9, 2-2) two days later to continue momentum. The Lobos will look to take sole possession of second place in the district with a win over McCurdy (9-11, 3-1) on Thursday, kicking off five straight road games after their first four in the district were at home.
Torrez said the team needs to re-find its confidence to continue success.
“After (winning eight of nine games) I think we just got overconfident,” Torrez said. “Since we lost to Mesa (on Jan. 21) we just fell apart. Now we just had to find that confidence we had once before.”