Rehoboth Christian falls to Bosque in OT thriller

REHOBOTH, N.M.

The second-ranked Rehoboth Christian Lynx nabbed the matchup – if not the outcome – it wanted heading into the final weeks of the regular season.

The 2A Lynx (13-6 overall) used Thursday’s game against 3A Bosque (14-5) as a precursor of what’s to come as the state playoffs loom in early March.

“This was like a state playoff game,” Rehoboth coach Kevin Zwiers said following his team’s 63-62 overtime loss to the visiting Bobcats.

“That’s the level of play we’ll see from teams at state,” Zwiers said. “We’re going to see that intensity and that competitiveness when we get to the playoffs. This was a good game for us as we move forward, as we get into our district season.

“To play a team like Bosque is what we needed,” he added. “You want to go into the postseason tested, and not win all of your games by 40, 30, 20 points.”

In Thursday’s marquee matchup, the Zwiers-coached team had the final possession in both regulation and overtime sessions.

In the first circumstance, the Lynx inbounded the ball from the far baseline with 4.6 seconds left and dished the ball to senior Raeden West, who heaved an NBA-range three-pointer to no avail. On the ensuing miss, sophomore Kodah Chapman had his putback rim out as the game was knotted at 52-all at the end of regulation.

“We got the shots that we wanted,” Zwiers said. “In a situation like that you either win the game or you go into overtime and that’s what we were talking about. We got off a great shot, we even had a put back opportunity that just rimmed out.”

In OT, senior Kaleb Vail took the last shot with the Lynx trailing by one, but his potential game-winning three clanked off the rim as time ran out.

“Bosque, you know, defended us well,” the Rehoboth coach said. “Again, we still put up a good shot, but it didn’t fall for us. It’s just the way it goes sometimes.”

Senior Kyle Morris scored the go-ahead bucket for Bosque with 6.3 seconds left in OT as the fourth-ranked Bobcats erased a 57-54 deficit at the start of the extra period.

“I’m just glad that we got out of here with a win,” an elated Bosque coach Clifton Davidson said. “Rehoboth is a very good team. Every time we come here, and every time they come to our place, it’s always a one-possession game. It’s always close regardless of anybody’s ranking.”

Rehoboth opened the extra session by nailing 3-of-4 free throws, but the Davidson coached-team didn’t buckle. The Bobcats retook the lead 58-57 on a 4-0 run that was capped by an inside bucket from junior Oliver Tumolo, who finished with 13 points.

The lead changed hands four more times until Morris earned the Bobcats the hard-fought win.

“To be honest, our problem all year has been our ability to find consistency in getting defensive stops and getting offensive plays,” Davidson said. “They showed some resiliency today. We haven’t been able to do that all year, and so it was great to see them do that today.”

Morris led the Bobcats with 21 points while senior Cooper Hautau added 15 and Tumolo chipped in 13.

Rehoboth received a game-best 26 points and four treys from Raeden West. Raeden’s younger brother, Trajen, helped with 16 with three treys and senior Kaleb Vail added 13 points.

“They were impossible to guard,” Davidson said of Rehoboth’s backcourt players. “Our whole defensive strategy coming into this game was to keep the ball out of their hands, keep them from getting wide-open threes.

“Regardless of what we did, they found ways to get shots and create for themselves,” he added. “They’re just really, really good players.”

The Lynx will wrap up the regular season with six district games starting with Navajo Pine on Tuesday. The four-team district also has Laguna Acoma and Dulce in the mix.

“We’re going to approach our district games the same way we do every game,” Zwiers said. “We’re going to continue to work on our stuff and make sure that we’re getting better every time we step out on the court.”

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