Tohatchi takes control in fourth quarter, beats Thoreau

THOREAU, N.M. – Despite some twists and turns, the Tohatchi boys basketball team had a “second act” up its sleeves on Wednesday night.

Tohatchi faced a five-point deficit at the start of the fourth before exploding for 28 points in the final seven minutes with district rival Thoreau Hawks.

That outburst turned into a runaway win as the third-ranked Cougars improved to 21-2 overall and 9-0 in District 1-3A play following its 71-54 win.

“This was our third time meeting with Thoreau and it did not disappoint,” Tohatchi coach Kendall Livingston said. “Thoreau came out and played hard.

“It was a game that we needed because we needed to be tested,” he added.

After experiencing a lull with its shooting performance, Tohatchi came alive in the fourth.

The Cougars had missed 11 shots in the third stanza and trailed by as much as eight points (41-33) as some of their shot attempts clanked the rim. But in the fourth, the Livingston-coached team made 10-of-14 shots, which included a 4-of-5 effort from beyond the 3-point arc.

“We’re usually a good shooting team,” Tohatchi senior guard Josh Dawes said. “We didn’t start out that way today, but we had to keep our heads up. I told my teammates to keep shooting the ball because we needed to get over this hump.”

Thoreau, which played superbly for the first three quarters, started the fourth with an old-fashioned 3-point play from senior Stetson Perry for a 48-43 lead.

Tohatchi junior guard DeAndre Rios matched that with his first trey of the night.

Behind Perry, Thoreau pushed its lead to 50-46 as he hit a layup while being fouled. The Thoreau senior, however, missed his free throw as Tohatchi pulled within one following another trey by Rios.

“You know, DeAndre was struggling and he was frustrated with himself, but I told him to play through it,” Livingston said. “I’m glad that he hit those 3s because that was a big picker-upper for him.”

Following Rios’ shot, the Cougars scored the next 14 points as a pair of free throws from Dawes earned Tohatchi a commanding 63-50 cushion 3:03 left. During that outburst, senior Kyle Yazzie added a pair of 3s

“Our shooters had to adjust,” Livingston said. “And once they got into their rhythm, they were putting the ball through the hoop.”

Dawes led the Cougars with a team-best 20 points and two treys while Yazzie added 19, which included five treys.

“Kyle is a really great player,” Dawes said of his teammate. “During the summer, we worked together and we played in a lot of tournaments. He worked on his shot, and now he can catch and shoot. He just has confidence in taking those outside shots.”

The Cougars also received 10 points from senior forward Adriano Begay and six points each from Rios and senior post Valentino Dawes.

“Josh and Kyle played their butts off tonight,” Livingston said. “You know, our bigs were finding each other, too. Adriano was getting boards and we had Elijah (Johnson) step up when Valentino went down with an injury.

“This game showed how well we played as a team, even being down by as much as eight points,” he added.

For Thoreau, Perry led the Hawks with 20 points while junior Elijah Becenti added 17.

Perry scored a dozen of his points in the opening half as he helped Thoreau to a 30-28 halftime lead. The Thoreau guard put in another five points at the start of the fourth, but he had two crucial offensive charges go against him.

“That helped us out a lot,” Livingston said of the offensive charges on Thoreau’s Perry. “It swung the momentum.”

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