RIO RANCHO — Too big, too fast and too strong.

That would be the easy way to describe how the Tularosa Wildcats were able to defeat Mesa Vista 87-62 in a quarterfinal of the Class AA Boys State Basketball Tournament on Wednesday in the Santa Ana Star Center.

Yes, the third-seeded Wildcats never trailed. Yes, they outscored the Trojans in three of the four quarters, but the Trojans never gave up, even when the game was all but decided in the fourth quarter.

"These guys don't stop playing until the final buzzer," said Mesa Vista head coach Thomas Vigil. "That why these guys are so good. They don't get down; I don't think their confidence ever wavers. They just keep coming. That's one of the traits of this team and of Mesa Vista basketball."

Senior forward Estevan Trujillo said it's been that way for the team all season, even when their record fell briefly below .500

"We play with heart and confidence," he said. "We go out and give it our all. That's been how we've been all year."

Junior Alejandro Lopez, who repeatedly threw his body into the lane, drawing fouls during the Trojans' offensive attacks, agreed with the assessments.

"We've been through so many games, no matter the situation," he said. "We just keeping fighting and playing on. That's a metaphor for our season."

Against Tularosa (22-6), Mesa Vista held serve with the Wildcats for the first 3 minutes of the game, trailing just 10-9 at the 4-minute, 29-second mark of the first quarter.

That's when Tularosa guard Emery Coleman took over. The junior scored 11 points as the Wildcats reeled off a 17-2 run to finish the quarter and take a 27-11 advantage into the second quarter.

Tularosa made the Trojans' press defense look porous during the run. But Mesa Vista mounted a comeback in the second, cutting the deficit to 43-30 by halftime.

"We did a good job of getting back in the game, but a couple of possessions at the end of the half killed us," Vigil said. "We got a stop and could've secured the rebound but then they come back and get one. We could've gone in down nine but instead we go in down 13. Those things are huge for momentum."

The Trojans kept the game close in the third, but seemed snake-bitten at times, as turnovers and bad bounces hounded them.

"That happens in games," Vigil said, describing a specific third quarter play. "We were cutting into the lead, we'd gotten a stop and the ball was going out of bounds under our basket. And our guy grabs the ball and tried to hit someone's legs."

Instead the ball bounced through the defense and a Wildcat went in for an uncontested layup.

"It wasn't lack of effort," Lopez said. "We just had some things go against us."

Mesa Vista, which finishes the season at 16-14, loses six seniors.