In a battle of two evenly-matched teams, the Escalante Lobos turned the tables on the McCurdy Bobcats Jan. 14 and came away with a razor-thin 48-46 road victory.
Plagued by 28 turnovers in a 53-46 overtime loss to McCurdy the week before, the Lobos stole the ball in the final seconds of the rematch to preserve the win.
“I’ve got some more gray hairs,” Escalante coach Milnor Manzanares said. “We almost gave it away.”
With five seconds left in the game and trailing by two points, McCurdy passed the ball inbounds at midcourt to Randy Martinez. He drove to the basket, but was intercepted by Escalante’s Justin Atencio who stole the ball and ran out the clock.
“(Escalante) defended it,” McCurdy coach Walter Bustos said. “I’m happy with the effort (my team) made.”
The Bobcats had led throughout the first quarter and were ahead 13-6 going into the second quarter. Escalante battled back in the second quarter. With McCurdy leading 18-13, Atencio canned a three-pointer. He followed with another three-point bomb and drew a foul. His ensuing free throw gave the Lobos a 20-18 lead.
Martinez scored for McCurdy just before the buzzer to tie the score at 26-26 at halftime.
The third quarter was a seesaw battle with five lead changes. The score was tied 37-37 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Lobos went cold from the free-throw line at the beginning of the fourth quarter, missing five straight attempts. McCurdy’s David Martinez rubbed salt in the wound, sinking his third three-pointer of the game to give McCurdy a 42-37 lead.
Leading 44-39 with less than four minutes left to play, McCurdy went cold from the field to allow the Lobos to claw their way back into the game. Jacob Flores, who had missed four free throws at the beginning of the fourth quarter, made a pair of charity tosses to give the Lobos a 45-44 lead. Another free throw by Matthew Trujillo extended the lead to two points.
McCurdy couldn’t get the ball in the basket, as Carlos Herrera missed a layup and the Bobcats blew a point-blank putback on the rebound. Another Trujillo free throw gave Escalante a 47-44 lead with 1:02 left in the game.
Another missed layup by McCurdy led to an Atencio free throw with 32 seconds left to play, giving Escalante a 48-44 lead. Atencio missed his next free throw and the Bobcats pushed the ball down the court in nine seconds to David Martinez, who finally broke McCurdy’s scoring drought with a driving layup and drew a foul. He missed the ensuing free throw.
Escalante turned the ball over on their next possession, but Atencio’s steal secured the Lobos’ victory.
David Martinez led all scorers with 14 points, while Randy Martinez and Ryan Bustos each had 13 for McCurdy. Trujillo led Escalante with 13 points, and Atencio added 12.
Escalante’s Eric Belser returned to action for the Lobos for the first time since suffering an ankle injury Nov. 25 against Mesa Vista. The 6-foo-2-inch forward scored six points off the bench.
“That’s going to help us,” Manzanares said. “For not playing for such a long time, he was pretty decent.”
Escalante went on to beat Santa Fe Prep 77-44 Jan. 15 in Tierra Amarilla.
McCurdy was idle the rest of last week.