Rehoboth wins ‘nail-biter’ over Bosque

REHOBOTH, N.M.

For three quarters, there was no indication that things would get any better for the Rehoboth Christian boys’ basketball team.

Rehoboth surrendered 11 treys to the visiting Bosque Bobcats on Jan. 28. The Lynx also had back-to-back technicals as the Albuquerque private school turned a 5-point swing into a 44-29 cushion with 5:15 left in the third.

At the 1:42 mark, the Bobcats hit its final trey and about a minute later gained its largest lead at 54-37.

“It was insane how many shots they were putting in,” Rehoboth Christian coach Kevin Zwiers said. “I mean, everybody hit a three. It was like can we weather the storm? Can we make them uncomfortable?”

The longtime Lynx coach got his answer in the fourth as Rehoboth stunned the Bobcats with a 60-55 come-from-behind win.

The surging 2A Lynx held a good shooting 3A Bosque squad to a single point in the final 8 minutes between two teams ranked No. 3 in the state.

“In the fourth, we seem to find a little something, and we started pressing them a little bit,” Zwiers said. “And I think that sped them up, rattled them, and we took them out of the rhythm.”

As a result, Bosque missed all nine attempts it put up in the fourth while turning the ball over eight times, including a charge call against sophomore Cooper Hautau.

In that play, the Bosque player ran into Isaac Zwiers as the Rehoboth player had his body set inside the paint with the Lynx trailing 55-52 with 2:37 to go.

In addition to picking up that charge, the Rehoboth senior had several offensive boards to keep the momentum going.

“We needed somebody to step up, so instead of one guy, we had the whole team step up,” said the younger Zwiers. “Everybody made gutsy plays.”

Another gutsy play came from junior guard Antonio Rivas. His late steal with 16 seconds left earned Rehoboth a fast break opportunity for senior Talon West, who completed the 3-point play at the other end.

“It was a nail-biter, and it was a great game,” West said. “I’m just appreciative for my coaches and my teammates. We were able to come through and lockdown on defense.

“That is what championship teams do,” West said. “We pulled together, and we kept it going and going.”

And while West finished with 33 points, the Rehoboth guard credited the play of his teammates.

“Those guys are our hustle guys right there,” West said. “Isaac and Antonio – they make big plays for us when we need them. It might not be on the offensive side of things, but they for sure can get it done on the defensive side of things.”

Rivas said the 5-point win wouldn’t have been possible without his teammates.

“It took a lot of teamwork for us to come back and win the game,” Rivas said. “I want to give a shout-out to my coaches and teammates. We put everything that we had to do this.”

In addition to West, the Lynx also had Isaac Zwiers and Mato Chapman finish in double figures as they chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively.

“We had guys step up, and we talk about all the time,” Kevin Zwiers said. “It’s not a five-man team. It’s not a seven-man team. It’s 13 guys, and we had all 13 guys play a role tonight.

“Some guys don’t get into the game, but their role is on the bench to bring encouragement to pick guys up when they’re coming to the bench,” he added. “I mean, when we were down, the bench pick them up, and when we sent them back in, they were ready to play, so it’s a full team effort.”

Bosque coach Clifton Davidson said it’s rare to hold his team to a single point in the last quarter.

“The fourth quarter is usually the one that we run,” Davidson said. “We average about 25 points in the fourth quarter. We just couldn’t get anything going today. We couldn’t hit shots, we couldn’t hit free throws, and we couldn’t get to the line. It was a struggle, and Rehoboth did a great job.”

And while they made 11 treys, the Bosque coach said it wasn’t sufficient.

“We’re a very good 3-point shooting team,” Davidson said. “We just didn’t make enough of them today. I just thought we did a great job in the first three quarters – we just didn’t get it done in the fourth.”

The Rehoboth coach said his team never quit despite things looking bleak late in the contest. That trademark, perhaps, comes from its state championship run last season when they trailed by double digits in both the state semis and championship game.

“When you look at the big games last year, we were down every single one of those games,” Zwiers said. “We were down by double digits until we get to the second half. Our guys keep scrapping, and they keep fighting. They keep finding little plays to try to get back into the game.”

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