There may have been a change at the top, but that doesn’t mean it still wasn’t business as usual for the Tascosa Lady Rebels to end the calendar year.
For the fourth straight year, Tascosa took on host Canyon in the Tatum Tough Tournament at Joe Lombard Gymnasium to end 2025 before everybody gets down to the business of district play. And for the fourth straight year, the Lady Rebels pulled off the enviable feat of leaving there holding sway over their hosts.
In clash between top 10 teams, Tascosa, ranked No. 10 in the state in the Class 5A Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll, faced Canyon, No. 1 in 4A, to end the festivities Wednesday afternoon. Tascosa won again, dominating in the second half, for a 55-43 win.
It may have been the most impressive victory for Tascosa (19-2) over Canyon (16-2) to date. What might make it particularly special is that it happened under new coach Zac Tabor, who has taken over the Lady Rebels and kept them rolling after the retirement of former coach Chris Sumrall last spring.
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“Over the two days with a full body of work, I’m super, super pleased with our girls,” Tabor said. “Coming off the five-day break with holiday hoops you never know what you’re going to get. You’ve got to kind of knock some rust off and (Tuesday) I felt we did a good job of getting back to our identity with pressure defense and being aggressive and I think that carried over into the Canyon game. Canyon is one of the best teams in the state and super well coached and hard to beat on their own floor.”
No one would argue with that assessment of the Lady Eagles, but if there’s a certain formula to beating them the last four years, Sumrall and now Tabor have found it with their Lady Eagles teams. Although no official champion of the tournament was crowned, this game was the unofficial tournament championship, since it was the last girls game scheduled after Tascosa and Canyon both went 2-0 as expected Tuesday.
The first three quarters were tight as expected. Canyon led by as many as seven points in the first quarter after Tascosa opened the scoring on a 3-pointer by Emily Sims.
Tascosa also ended the first half with the lead, as another 3-pointer, this one by Analia Humphrey off the bench, gave the Lady Rebels a 22-21 halftime lead, only their second lead of the game, but they never relinquished it.
“I think we came out with a slow start and we weren’t quite ready to play,” Tabor said. “We kind of had to chip away and we felt like if we could ever hit that big shot it could give us momentum and confidence to start scoring.”
The Lady Rebels led 37-30 at the end of the third quarter and maintained control. Devaeh Johnson carried the Lady Rebels offensively in the fourth quarter, scoring their first six points and finishing with eight in the period en route to a game-high 15 points.
Kenzee Dickson and Nic’Kiyah Fisher both had 12 points for Tascosa, and that scoring balance was the difference in the game. Kambrie Graser was Canyon’s only double digit scorer with 11 pointrs.
“Give credit to Tascosa, they’re the best defensive team we’ve played all year,” Canyon coach Tate Lombard said. “Over the course of the game that kind of adds up. I was proud of how we started. We had some runs there and they had some there where we had a few turnovers and it’s hard to come back from that.”
Both teams lived up to the hype Tuesday.
Tascosa beat Clarendon 64-51 and crushed Greenwood 73-11. The latter game was particular testament to Tascosa’s depth, as the two leading scorers for the Lady Rebels, Emerson Plummer and America Vega both came off the bench to equal Greenwood’s team total with 11 points each. Vega never even got off the bench against Canyon.
Tuesday, the Lady Eagles beat Greenwood 62-30 and Clarendon 54-40. Canyon’s Tai Wright had 17 points against Clarendon.
In what amounted to a consolation game, Clarendon left the tournament with a win Wednesday, beating Greenwood 52-26.