NMPreps.com's recap of the 2021 2A State Championship. The Rehoboth Christian. #nmpreps
Down But Not Out, Lynx Rally for Title
For Rehoboth, the wait has been 44 years, for Head Coach Kevin Zwiers the wait was 17 years, but now the waiting is over and they are state champs. The Lynx won their first state championship in 1977 following a 55-50 win over Jal. Afterward, Coach Zwiers said, "This is year seventeen now and when we took over we said we wanted to get back here, it's taken a lot longer to get here than we probably thought but we are here. Shoutout to all the guys who played before, we're standing on their shoulders here, they stuck with us through the lean years."
The two teams each came into the game with matching and perfect 14-0 records and early on it was Jal taking an early 9-5 lead. Talon West pulled up from Steph Curry range and drained it to make it 9-8 but over the last 1:29 of the opening quarter, it was all Panthers who closed the quarter 7-0 to lead 16-8.
The Lynx scored the first four points of the second quarter to cut the Jal lead in half, however, the Panthers roared back with a 12-2 run, capped off by an Ethan Sandoval corner three-ball to make it 28-14 with 2:18. The Lynx answered with a 6-0 spurt to close the half, and it was 28-20 Jal going into halftime.
Jal opened the second half with a 7-1 run to once again open a 14-point lead, this time at 35-21 with 4:22. In a game of runs, it was now the Lynx turn and Jake Zylstra took the game over. He started the 10-0 run with a three from the wing. Zylstra scored 10 points in the third quarter and after the dust settled there was a whole new game headed into the fourth quarter with Jal now clinging to a 39-35 lead.
Mato Chapman tied the game at 39 with a corner three at 6:58, and Zylstra spun and scored in the lane to complete the comeback and give his team a 41-39 lead with 5:54. "What happened in the first half we turned the ball over 11 times and finished the game with 15 so in the second half we really cleaned it up. We started just getting after it and started making some hustle plays," Coach Zwiers commented. Josh Cervantes hit a pair of freebies to give Jal back the lead at 47-45 with 2:41. On the ensuing possession, it was Chapman again from deep to put the Lynx up 48-47, Zylstra added two more to make 50-47 but Jacob Lujan sank the game-tying three for Jal with just 1:14 left in the game.
West had a one and one opportunity with 54 seconds he calmly drained both to give the Lynx the lead, and they would not relinquish it going on to win 55-50.
"Our side of the state has suffered so much in the past year and we just talked about it as a team, the joy that we can bring people is unbelievable. We are just happy we can provide that by playing basketball," Coach Zwiers said.
