Fourth-quarter rally puts Rehoboth Christian boys in 2A quarterfinals

REHOBOTH, N.M. – Despite facing a five-point deficit midway through the fourth stanza with some key players in foul trouble, the Rehoboth Christian boys basketball team showed some patience and poise down the stretch on Saturday afternoon.

The seventh-seeded Lynx (21-8) came from behind to earn a hard-fought 60-49 win over No. 10 seed Hagerman (18-11) in the opening round of the New Mexico Class 2A boys state playoffs.

“Nobody panicked,” Rehoboth coach Kevin Zwiers said. “We were calm, we were cool, and we knew that the offense would come around. It’s been a while since we’ve had to play a team that plays man-to-man and so that was a little bit different.”

For the past few months, opposing teams have played Rehoboth with a zone defense, Zwiers said. Hagerman did that at the beginning, but the Lynx took them out of their zone just minutes into the opening quarters.

“It just took a little while for us to get into the flow of them playing us man-to-man, but the guys did a great job,” Zwiers said. “Again, nobody panicked and nobody tried to be a hero. They just took the shots that the defense was giving to us.”

The visiting Bobcats, who traveled five-plus hours to make the game at Rehoboth High School, took a 43-38 lead on a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Ricardo Mctague with 4:49 left in the fourth quarter.

The Lynx, however, received a big push from senior guard Michael Murrow and junior point guard Trajen West as Rehoboth closed out the game on a 22-6 run. The duo combined for 13 of those points headed by Murrow’s nine.

“Like coach says, it’s a team effort,” said West, who finished with a game-best 20 points. “We had people stepped up, Simon (Frederiksen) especially. He’s a freshman and he stepped up big.”

Frederiksen came off the bench as he put in some quality minutes filling in for senior starters Kristian Touchine and Kodah Chapman who were saddled with fouls.

Touchine eventually fouled out of the game late in the fourth as the 6-foot-4 post finished with 16 points.

After Mctague earned that five-point lead for Hagerman, Murrow went to work as he made seven straight points as his layup with 3:29 left put Rehoboth up for good at 45-44. In that pivotal run, the Rehoboth guard nailed a 3, which was sandwiched between a pair layups as he attacked the basket.

“My teammates were encouraging me to drive, so I drove,” said Murrow, who finished with 14 points. “I want to thank them because they found me when I was open, and this wouldn’t have been possible because they got me the ball.

“I think I got my momentum going because we were making stops, defensively,” he added. “It got me confident enough to make my shots because I wasn’t hitting that much at the beginning, but in the second half, our defense got our guys up.”

And while Hagerman started to settle for 3s, the Lynx continued to attack the basket as they found success with Touchine, West and sophomore Thijs Meester scoring from close range for a 54-46 lead with 1:05 remaining.

Rehoboth closed out the game by nailing six free throws to seal the 11-point win.

“We started attacking the basket more in the second half,” Zwiers said of the turnaround. “In the first half we weren’t and that was what we talked to the guys about at halftime. We made a couple adjustments to the offense, and that freed up some more lanes to begin to actually attack and, yeah, were able to get downhill and get some finishes and get to the free throw line a bit.”

For the game, the Lynx made 14-of-19 from the charity line, which included a 9-of-10 effort in the fourth quarter, which pleased Zwiers.

“At this time of the year, that’s where you win games,” the Rehoboth coach said. “If you want to win championships, you got to be able to knock down free throws, especially in crunch time.”

With the win, Rehoboth will now focus on No. 2 seed Santa Rosa, a team they faced earlier this season as the Lions won that contest 58-47 on Jan. 17.

On Saturday, Santa Rosa advanced with a 75-60 win over No. 15 seed Raton. The quarterfinal game is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Rio Rancho Events Center.

“Santa Rosa is really good,” Zwiers said. “They’re tough, they’re athletic, they’re quick, they’ve got size, and they’ve got shooters. That’s going to be a really fun matchup because we’ve seen each other once already. It’s gonna be a really good game.

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