Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CLOVIS — The Clovis girls basketball team did a nice job of salvaging its own Plateau Holiday Classic Saturday, breaking free from Randall to win the consolation game 68-58 at Rock Staubus Gymnasium.
The game was tied 43-all heading into the fourth quarter where Clovis outscored Randall 25-15. Forward Madison Tolbert led the way, knocking down 11 of her game-high 25 in that decisive period.
“We were feeding the ball inside and she went to work,” Clovis head coach Jeff Reed said. “She really killed us last night (against Farmington) because she coudln’t finish. But tonight I think she took it personally and gave us a big boost. A lot of girls stepped up.”
Including Brittni Chavez, who added 11 for the Wildcats, greatly helping the cause after senior guard Teya Morris found herself in foul trouble.
Clovis rebounded from a forgettable shooting effort Friday night to grab third place.
“We finally came out of our scoring drought,” Reed said. “If we could’ve done that last night we’d been int he championship tonight. We made the run this time instead of them.”
And gained some end-of-year swagger in the process.
“Randall’s a very good team, so that was a big win for us,” Reed said. “I told the girls we could go 1-2 in this tournament and get fourth place or 2-1 in this tournament and get third place. ... If we can gain some momentum from that, maybe we can start clicking.”
Clovis will host Lubbock-Coronado on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
Rams also take third
LITTLEFIELD, Texas — Taylee Rippee’s 28-point effort helped the Portales girls basketball team (11-2) roll in the Consolation Championship of the Wildcat Classic, 76-28, over Andrews (7-10). For Rippee, it was a career-high, following Zamorye Cox’ 27 points on Friday, which was a career high for her, as well.
“It wasn’t really one thing,” Rams coach Wade Fraze said of Rippee’s day. “She just had a good day. It was a combination of things. Maybe she’d get a steal, or maybe she’d be open under the basket.”
Portales scored 45 points by half, and every single available player — 11 in all, scored at least 1 point in the game. According to Fraze, the Rams’ style overwhelmed Andrews, from start to finish.
“The kids came out and just played well as a team,” Fraze explained. “We pressed (Andrews) and at times just overwhelmed them with turnovers. We rebounded well and got to do some things we haven’t gotten to do to this point.”
As for the tournament itself, Fraze said, “The biggest thing we take out of this game is learning from what we did in the first round (against Stratford). We didn’t play well and we didn’t execute, and I thought we did those things in the last two games.”
Portales next travels to Artesia, Tuesday at 7 p.m.
