Dexter boys end 2009 with a victory
CCSR photo by Karen Boehler — Loving's Michael Martinez (20) looks like he wants nothing to do with Bryan Mireles (25) as the Demon tries to move the ball to the net.
Karen Boehler
CCSR writer/editor
CCSR photo by Karen Boehler — Nick Deutsch (44) puts up the last two Demon points of Saturday's games as everyone else just seems to watch.
DEXTER — The Dexter boys basketball team got just what it was hoping for heading into the holiday break: a victory.
Facing an improved Loving squad Saturday, the Demons (2-4) edged the Falcons (2-4) 47-43 in a game that came down to the wire. But Dexter coach J.T. Bracken said it didn’t matter how the victory was accomplished: it’s a big plus heading into the next part of the season.
“I told our guys, going into the Christmas break with a win, it kind of helps boost our morale and knowing that you’re going into the new year with a win in your book, it helps,” he said.
But it wasn’t easy getting there.
While Dexter outscored Loving 14-4 in the first quarter — allowing only one field goal and two free throws — the Falcons slowly started catching up. They outscored the Demons 13-7 in the second quarter, and trailed by a mere four points heading into the locker room.
“We come out and it just seemed like we were playing flat,” Bracken said of the start of the third quarter. “Playing to the level of our competition and finally, I guess, they woke up, towards the fourth quarter. We weren’t aggressive enough on our press. We were kind of being passive and sitting back and finally they realized, ‘Hey! We have to be aggressive. We have to be go-getters.’ And that’s when things started picking up for us.”
CCSR photo by Karen Boehler — Demon Steven Marquez (24) moves like a freight train past a Loving defender.
But before that, Loving again outscored Dexter, going up 36-33 after three quarters despite a stanza-ending 3-pointer by Clay Garnett.
And the fourth was a whole new ball game, with tying it with 5:40 remaining on a field goal by Garnett after a free throw from Nick Deutsch.
Then, each side matched the points put on by the other until, with 2:40 left, Jaime Bueno hit to from the charity stripe to put Dexter on top and a little more than a minute later Deutsch put in the lay up that sealed the victory.
There were a lot of missed shots during the game, and Bracken said that made a difference.
“Free throws and lay ups,” he said. “We missed a bunch of easy lay ups under the basket. Had we made our free throws and made our lay ups, it would have been another game. Totally different game. But we found a way to win. I told them Ill take a win every time. It was ugly, but we found a way to get it done.”
Loving coach Apolonio Cordova said that’s exactly what his squad has yet to learn.
“We battled back, got within four at halftime then took the lead and again, let it get out of our hands. We are so young that we have a hard time. When we lead, we play not to lose, rather than to just win the ball game. You see it in the kids and you try to let them work through it. Unfortunately we only had two time outs (left) and we used them both, but we didn’t settle them down enough and it just kind of got away from us.”
And as to the slow start — the second in two games, after a one point first-quarter against NMMI — Cordova isn’t sure what the problem is.
“Whatever it is, we need to find out what it is and get that taken care of,” he said. “Fortunately, they didn’t get off to a very quick start, so that kind of kept us in the game, too.”
Bryan Mireles was the big man for Dexter Saturday, putting 16 points on the board. Deutsch had 12 — eight in the pivotal fourth — and both Gio Rodriguez and Eddy Rodriguez had 11 for the Falcons.
While both teams get a much-needed holiday break, they’ll both probably be thinking about the game, since the two meet again on Jan. 2 in Loving.
“I’m sure they’re going to remember this and it’ll be a good game,” Bracken said.
“We’ll learn from it and go on,” Cordova said. “We’ll come back. We see these guys our next game Jan. 2 and so we’ll get on them. It’ll be a different outcome.”