The Northern Rio Grande tournament was quite the learning experience for the Escalante boys basketball team.
The Lobos learned just how good they can be when they beat top-seeded Mesa Vista in Friday’s semifinals.
And Escalante learned that they need to bring that same effort every night to sustain success, after a tough 59-42 loss to second-seeded Pecos in Saturday’s championship game.
“We have to play that ‘A’ game every night,” Lobos coach Isaac Royston said. “We had that ‘A’ game against Mesa Vista because we really shot the ball very well. But it happens the other way and we have to move forward and learn from that loss Saturday night and work on what we need to work on. We didn’t execute offensively. Defensively, we didn’t do well at all. So we have some things we need to work on this coming week.”
Escalante (10-3) opened the tournament with a workmanlike performance in a 68-38 win over Questa on Thursday, but Royston thought it could have gone better.
“I think we were flat the whole game,” he said. “I’m not exactly sure why or anything like that. It might have been a case of overlooking Questa and looking toward the next game.”
And that would have been easy to do with the Trojans looming, but RJ Atencio had 18 points, with Mateo Torrez adding 15 and Charlie Ferrell 11.
“People look at the outcome of the game and think ‘what is he talking about?’ But we didn’t play our type of basketball in that first game,” he said. “A win is a win and that works for us, but I just thought in that game we could have played a lot better.”
Against the Trojans (12-3), it was a wild, back-and-forth game featuring plenty of scoring from both sides, with Escalante coming out on top, 84-77.
“The kids seemed real confident coming into that game,” Royston said. “As the game continued, the kids jut developed a lot more confidence within themselves and their teammates.”
The result was four players landing in double figures, led by 21 each from Ferrell and Damien Baeza. Torrez added 12 and Richard Glover had 11.
“What helped us out in the game is we shot phenomenal,” Royston said. “We haven’t shot that good all season long. “
The Lobos went 9 for 13 on three-pointers and hit about 60% of their shots inside the arc, he said.
“We were just on fire,” Royston said. “Overall, that’s the best game we played all season. It was a good win over a (District 5-2A) foe and Mesa Vista is the favorite in the district. That was just a really good win and confidence-builder for us.”
It was the type of game that can carry a team into the future, Royston said.
“In that game, basically everybody contributed,” he said. “It was huge in the sense that they’re rated No. 1 in 2A and they are a really, really good team. Coach Thomas (Vigil) has done a fantastic job with those kids. But for us, hopefully that was a confidence booster moving forward, knowing we can play and we do belong in the race in 2A.”
The championship game, however, was another matter entirely, as shots that were dropping the previous night were not going down this time around.
“After the game, I told them that it’s a learning curve,” Royston said. “That you have to come out and play your best every night. Yesterday’s game is yesterday’s game and then you have to look to the next game.”
And with the game against the Trojans pitting regional rivals, it took quite an effort, especially since the Lobos had dropped three consecutive games in the series.
“I think the Mesa game took a lot out of us mentally and physically,” Royston said. “And Pecos is certainly no slouch. Offensively, we struggled mightily. We couldn’t put the ball in the hoop like the night before. We just couldn’t put the ball in the basket.”
Still, Escalante trailed just 9-8 after the first quarter before things went completely awry.
“Going into the second quarter, we got overwhelmed,” Royston said. “Pecos’s pressure got to us a little bit and we weren’t making shots and we had some turnovers.”
By halftime, the Lobos trailed 28-13 and the deficit proved to be too much to overcome.
“We scrapped to get back in it and couldn’t climb that hill,” Royston said. “We got down too much. We’ll work hard this week to right the ship and get our focus back and get ready for that tough district that starts next week.”