Rangers use 15-0 game-ending run to eclipse Escalante in first round matchup
What a four-day whirlwind it was for Mora High School interim head boys basketball coach Marco Sanchez.
The new, but familiar face had last headed the Rangers in 2014-15 — and he returned to the bench after getting a surprising call from Mora Independent School District Interim Superintendent Dr. Carla Spaniel two days before the team’s trip to the 2019 Northern Rio Grande Tournament after the school fired head coach Carlos Arellano following the Stu Clark Tournament.
“I got a call from her at my home at 2:30 p.m. asking me if I would do the school a favor,” Sanchez said. “I’ve been a teacher and educator at the school for the last 15 years, so I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do it.’ I had a meeting with her the next day (Jan. 2) at 3 p.m. and then we were practicing at 3:30 p.m.”
Despite what he went through a day before to find himself leading the program again, it was a more uncomfortable final four minutes for the Escalante High School boys basketball team in the first round Jan. 3 at Ben Luján Gymnasium against the eventual tournament champions from Mora.
In what turned out to be the most exciting game in the first round on either the boys or girls side, the Lobos held a 46-36 advantage at the midway point of the fourth quarter, but faltered in the final four minutes as Mora ended the game on a 15-0 run to steal a 51-46 win.
Escalante had built their 10-point lead behind a strong third quarter showing from senior Anthony Ulibarri, who scored a team-high 15 points with 10 coming in the third. The Lobos had also done a consistent job at operating around the Rangers 2-3 zone defense for three quarters, but a switch to the 1-3-1 in the final eight minutes left them stumped.
“They were literally just standing there, and Mora didn’t have to play any type of special defense,” Escalante head coach Henry Gettler said. “You can go in our locker room and take a picture of our blackboard. It says, ‘No live ball turnovers,’ and that’s what we did over and over and over. It’s that simple.”
As Mora made their charge to come back, Gettler tried to stop the run through four different timeouts in effort to corral his players.
“Whatever our reasons are, we just couldn’t figure it out,” he said. “They didn’t even trap us. You have to fake a pass to make a pass and we couldn’t do that.”
The Lobos (6-7) did rebound and rode past Mesa Vista (58-34) on day two and hammered Questa High School 68-27 to win the tournament consolation championship.
With adrenaline pumping after their first round comeback, Mora battled past McCurdy Charter School 63-55 in the semifinals to advance to the championship game against Pecos High School, who had just defeated the Rangers 83-59 Dec. 28 at the Stu Clark Tournament.
Given the past result, many viewed the NRG boys championship game as a true David versus Goliath situation — which was OK, because Pecos had rolled through Peñasco High School in the first round (86-13) and Dulce High School in the semifinals (88-25).
But, David prevailed and the Rangers (8-6) spoiled a Pecos girls and boys championship by upsetting the Panthers 73-67.
Mora held a 30-26 lead at the intermission and stayed ahead 45-42 after three quarters. After Pecos (11-4) fell behind 51-44 with 5:47 remaining in the fourth, the Panthers closed the gap to 63-60 after a successful field goal by Anthony Armijo with 2:05 left.
Just over a minute later, the Rangers’ Carlos Arellano was intentionally fouled with exactly 60 seconds left on the clock with his team up 65-63. The junior went on to sink four consecutive free throws on the next two possessions and Mora finished off the game 8-of-10 from the charity stripe in the final minute to prevail as champions.
“When I practiced with them the first day that’s all we did,” Sanchez said. “We shot free throws because I was still trying to gain (the prescriptive) on everybody, but it’s unbelievable, we just beat the No. 1 team in the state.”
McCurdy Lady Bobcats
After losing a mistake-filled first round game to Dulce by a score of 45-28, McCurdy rebounded for two wins, with one over Escalante (43-20) and then a 41-39 victory over Questa High School in the consolation championship.
Questa went scoreless in the first quarter, but fought back in the second and trailed the Lady Bobcats 22-17 at halftime. The Lady Wildcats would go on to outscore McCurdy 22-19 in the second half, but the first quarter goose egg was too much to overcome.
Jayme Bustos had 17 points to lead McCurdy, Angie Arroyo came through with 12 and Erika Loera-Avila had five.
Escalante Lady Lobos
Escalante entered the NRG 0-6, in what head coach Isaac Royston said was due to a “lack of identity.” That trend continued for the first two games in losses to Penasco High School and McCurdy, but the Lady Lobos finally picked up their first win of the season in the seventh-place game over Mesa Vista High School, taking the game 46-39.
Freshman Kalese Torrez charged the Lady Lobos with a game-high 22 points and made 8-of-13 free throw attempts.
The score was tied at 20 apiece at halftime, then Escalante outscored the Lady Trojans 26-18 in the second half behind Torrez, who scored 15 of her 22 points in the final two quarters.
Mesa Vista Trojans
The Trojans (2-8) played a competitive first quarter in their first round game against McCurdy, but they were unable to keep up the pace in the second quarter onward and suffered a 73-41 loss.
Round two in consolation was no better, as the Lobos from Escalante cruised to a 58-34 victory.
“It’s frustrating because we can’t play a complete four quarters,” Mesa Vista head coach Benito Maestas said after the Escalante loss.
They only had to wait a day later to prove their coach wrong, and the Trojans finally played a full 32 minutes in a 66-33 blowout over Peñasco.
Damian Trujillo — per usual — led the stat sheet for Mesa Vista, exploding for 34 points. Julian Quintana got hot from beyond the arch for the Trojans, draining four 3-pointers in route to an 18-point performance.
Mesa Vista’s defense stepped up to the table, limiting the Panthers to just seven first half points and only a single bucket by Jeremiah Martinez in the first quarter.