Rattler basketball teams have little time to prepare

Tucumcari’s two high-school basketball teams will have little time from the end of the school’s abbreviated football and volleyball seasons before their first games.

It would have been even less time for the girls team, except its season-opening game at Robertson was rescheduled from March 30 to April 2.

The Tucumcari boys will open their season April 5 at Texico.

The Ratters’ and Lady Rattlers’ first home games at the Snake Pit will be against Logan on April 8, with the girls game starting at 5 p.m. and the boys game following.

No junior varsity games will be played because of the lack of players on both teams.

Like football and volleyball, basketball will have an abbreviated season, with just 12 regular-season games.

Boys basketball coach John Span said his team’s strengths and weaknesses probably won’t be fully known until its first game. One thing he said he’ll insist on is a high-energy style.

“All I can say is we’re going to play hard,” Span said. “We’re going to push the ball up and down the floor and do what we normally do. We’re hoping to not go into any set offense because we’d rather have high-percentage shots in transition.

“Even though we don’t have a whole lot of depth, we do a lot of conditioning. It’s going to up to our players to stay out of foul trouble. We’ve had low numbers like this before in the past, and it’s not an issue. We’ve had kids who can push the ball up and down the floor and be successful.”

Guards Curtis Gonzales, Nathaniel Mardo and Dominick Jasper and power forward Andrew Henderson-Clark are among those returning with varsity experience from last season’s 9-16 team.

One who didn’t return, however, was point guard and leading scorer Jesus Ramos, who moved to Hobbs.

“I’ve got three kids working at point guard, but I don’t know who’s going to be there yet,” Span said.

Girls coach Gary Hittson made no bones about the fact his team is rebuilding after the loss of four starters from last season’s 19-11 team that made it to the Class 3A quarterfinals.

Hittson said he had only six freshmen and two eighth-graders in practice, though he hoped for others after volleyball season ended Saturday. One volleyball player who was a basketball starter from last season, guard Alexus Lafferty, showed up for practice Thursday.

“We just want to play hard every time we step on the court,” Hittson said. “We want to learn from game to game. We knew it was going to be rebuilding year. We’re just hoping to put a good product on the floor so that people will come and watch.”

Here is the schedule for Tucumcari boys and girls basketball:

• 5 p.m. Friday at Robertson (girls only)

• 5:30 p.m. Monday at Texico (boys and girls)

• 5 p.m. April 6 at Melrose (boys and girls)

• 5 p.m. April 8 at home vs. Logan (boys and girls)

• 5 p.m. April 9 at Clayton (boys and girls)

• 5 p.m. April 12 at home vs. Santa Rosa (boys and girls)

• 5 p.m. April 13 at home vs. Dexter (boys only)

• 5 p.m. April 13 at Dexter (girls only)

• 5 p.m. April 15 at NMMI (boys only)

• 5 p.m. April 15 at home vs. NMMI (girls only)

• 2 p.m. April 17 at Raton (boys only)

• 4 p.m. April 20 at Santa Rosa (boys and girls)

• 5 p.m. April 22 at Dexter (boys only)

• 5 p.m. April 22 at home vs. Dexter (girls only)

• 2 p.m. April 24 at home vs. East Mountain (boys and girls)

• 5 p.m. April 27 at home vs. NMMI (boys only)

• 5 p.m. April 27 at NMMI (girls only)