Rehoboth falls short in 2A title game

ALBUQUERQUE

A slow start ultimately put the Rehoboth Christian boys basketball team on its heels on Saturday morning.

The Lynx (24-7) fell behind by double digits in the opening minutes of the New Mexico Class 2A boys state championship game. That deficit was too much to overcome as Rehoboth dropped a 58-46 decision to the top seeded Texico Wolverines (30-2) inside The Pit in Albuquerque.

“First of all, congratulations to Texico, they’re a heck of a team,” longtime Rehoboth coach Kevin Zwiers said. “They’re really good, they’re strong, they’re physical, they’re talented, and so they do a great job.”

Afterward, Texico coach Craig Cook reciprocated that acknowledgment, and he lauded Rehoboth for making the title game as the No. 6 seed. In their run, the Lynx beat No. 3 Mesa Vista in a wild 65-61 finish in the quarters before disposing of No. 2 seed Pecos 51-46 to reach the finals.

“Rehoboth is a really good team,” said Cook. “They beat some really good teams and it wasn’t by mishap. They believed in each other. They have great guards, and they have a great inside presence. They matched up extremely well to us, so I knew it was going to be a tough battle today,

“I give all props to Rehoboth because any team that believes – it doesn’t matter the seed you get – they’re gonna make a run.”

Early on, the Lynx trailed 10-0 as they missed six shots while turning over the ball two times to concede that early deficit. Rehoboth didn’t receive its first basket until the 3:34 mark when senior forward Kodah Chapman got his shot attempt to fall.

“We just felt a little rushed,” Rehoboth guard Trajen West said of their play. “You know, (Texico) came out just playing aggressive defense, so it was a little hard to stay under control. They played really good defense, and they stopped our set plays.”

In that Texico run, sophomore Nathan Autrey and senior forward Bennet Whalen scored four points apiece for that quick 10-0 start as the Wolverines scored a couple of buckets near the rim.

“I think we always end up in good shape when we start out fast,” Whalen said. “In a couple of games this season, we had struggles of starting off slow and that was one of our talking points.

“I think once we started out fast and got some quick points, all the nerves that we had went away and we just started playing our basketball.”

For Rehoboth, sophomore post Simon Frederiksen picked up two fouls in those initial moments as he only logged in 1:40 on the court.

“In that quarterfinal game, I was in foul trouble as well,” said Fredericksen, who finished nine rebounds and no points. “It’s hard to take myself out of the game in those situations. But, you know, I’m just really thankful for my teammates with the way they picked me up because it’s always frustrating to get those fouls early.”

Frederiksen said he committed those fouls in frustration as he substituted in and out of the contest, playing 19 minutes while the rest of the starters logged in 28-plus minutes.

“It’s definitely hard to play with fouls because I have to be more conservative on how I normally play,” he said. “But definitely, it’s just my team picking me up and just telling me to play well, play good defense.”

With Frederiksen relegated to the bench, Texico continued to pound the ball inside. The Wolves led 29-16 at the break with 18 of those points coming from the paint.

West, meanwhile, kept Rehoboth afloat with a dozen points.

The Lynx had their best scoring run at the start of the third when Rehoboth scored seven straight points and got within 31-23 from junior Thijs Meester’s two-point bucket with 4:11 left.

Late in the third, though, Texico closed the third stanza with a 7-0 run to go up 42-27 heading into the fourth.

The Lynx made one final push, getting as close a 49-41 with 2:03 left in regulation following a 3-pointer from Meester.

Texico was led by junior guard Jett Curtis, who finished with a team-best 17 points while Whalen added 12.

For Rehoboth, West led all scorers with 23 points. Meester added 12 and Chapman finished with nine.

And while three of the five state playoff brackets featured No. 1 versus No. 2 in the championship game, Zwiers credited his team’s improvement throughout the year for making the finals as a lower seed.

“We’ve known we had a really good team from the very beginning,” Zwiers said. “Maybe other people haven’t been paying as much attention to where we’re at and our side of the state, but we knew we had all the pieces.

“It was just a matter of – do the pieces come together?” he added. “And credit to our guys for continuing to learn throughout the course of the year and put things together. You always want to be playing your best basketball at the end of the year, and that was definitely the case with this team.”

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