JACONA — It was fitting that Pojoaque Valley senior Tom Nakotte made his final jumper, because he couldn't hit one the rest of the night.

His deep 3-pointer at the buzzer Saturday gave the No. 7 Elks a 53-50 victory over No. 10 Wingate in the opening round of the Class AAA Boys State Basketball Championships.

"I finally hit a shot," Nakotte said. "I didn't make anything before that."

The final play, which Pojoaque head coach Joey Trujillo drew up during a timeout with 6.1 seconds left of a tie game, wasn't even supposed to go through Nakotte.

"It was a play run for Chris (Ortiz)," Nakotte said. "He was the first option, he just wasn't open. We just ran the second option. I was wide open. It was just luck. I don't know. I kept trying."

Ortiz had his own big shot a minute earlier.

His baseline 3-pointer with one minute left put the Elks (20-10) up 50-49, their first lead since the opening seconds of the second quarter.

"I was just thinking of getting the ball and shooting because that's what coach told me to do," Ortiz said. "I've been shooting well for the last couple of games and coach wanted me to step up because I'm a senior. I felt really good and it went in."

The ball had carved a rainbow through the gym before dropping cleanly through net.

"It had arch," Ortiz said with a grin. "Somebody was coming at me and I had to throw it over him, and I made it."

After holding a 12-11 lead after the first quarter, the Elks struggled in the second quarter, hitting just two shots as the Bears took a 25-17 lead into halftime.

Wingate extended the lead in the opening five minutes of the third quarter, going up 35-23.

That's when Trujillo changed up his defense.

"We picked up the tempo a little bit, forced them into some turnovers, and we got some easy layups," he said. "And I think that was the key. Once we got some easy layups, we got confidence and they started to play on their heels. It seemed like there for a while, they (the Bears) were playing not to lose instead of playing to win, and that gave us a chance to get back in the game."

The Elks broke out a press that they don't usually employ.

"I changed the press around," Trujillo said. "It's not even a press we usually work on. But I matched it up to what they were doing and went with my fast guys and sat the slow guys on the bench. It made a difference."

For a time, Wingate was running at will, pushing the ball past the Elks repeatedly.

But Pojoaque put together a 3-minute, 10-0 run to get back in the game.

"Our defense picked up and they started getting a little rattled and throwing the ball away," Nakotte said. "That let us get back in the game."

The Elks got even at 37 when Luke Salazar converted an uncontested fastbreak layup one minute into the fourth quarter.

At that point, it seemed as if Pojoaque had run out of gas as the Bears used an 8-2 run to regain the advantage.

"They made a little run in the fourth quarter and started to pull away," Nakotte said. "Luckily, we just stayed with it and got back in the game."

Brian Montoya nailed a 3-pointer to halt the slide, setting his teammates up for the end-game theatrics.

First it was Ortiz, who finished with 14 to share game-high honors with Salazar.

"That was a huge shot," Trujillo said of the 3-pointer Ortiz hit. "I was telling Chris all night, 'You're open. You got to shoot it.' "

And then it was Nakotte finishing it off.

"Tom has had big shots ever since he was a sophomore," Trujillo said. "In the state tournament, against West (Las Vegas), last year against West, even this year. He proved it out there again. He stepped up like a senior should."

Trujillo even spoke to Nakotte during the game about his shooting woes.

"In fact, in one of the timeouts, I asked him, 'When are you going to hit a big shot for us?' So I had to tell him after the game, 'I'm not going to tell you that anymore because you did it.' "