Amarillo overtakes Wildcats

Clovis' Elliott Hita battles for a loose ball with Amarillo's Adam Highes on Saturday at Rock Staubus Gym. (CNJ staff photo: Mike Linn)

Shot after shot mercilessly caromed off the rim in the final two minutes Saturday night for the Clovis Wildcats.

And it didn’t matter who was shooting.

Senior post Tigg Bunton missed two shots. Senior forward Dominique Easterlin missed another from point-blank range. Senior guard Jacob Jones saw his 15-foot jumper rim out. And senior point guard Tizrick Phillips’ 3-pointer went half way in — then came right back out.

The Amarillo Sandies scored the last six points of the game and 13 of the last 14 as the Wildcats fell to Amarillo 51-45 on Saturday at the inaugural Purple Pepper Classic at Rock Staubus Gym.

“It’s bad, it’s really frustrating ...” Phillips said. “We need to learn to play the whole 32 minutes.”

The eventual game-winner was Anthony Miller’s 3-pointer with just over 1 1/2 minutes to go, and the Sandies added three more free throws from there.

The Wildcats never gave up, though.

They turned up the pressure, which led to two jump balls and an Amarillo (17-5) turnover in the last minute, but Clovis (15-2) could never capitalize.

“We had three or four good shots and they didn’t go down,” Clovis coach J.D. Isler said.

Clovis was 13 of 20 from the free throw line, while the Sandies made 16 of 20.

The Sandies matched both Clovis’ speed and size, something Phillips said no team had been able to do this season.

“We knew it’d be a battle all night, especially with their size,” Isler said. “I don’t think we’ll see anyone that big in our district.”

Amarillo had three players at least 6-foot-5, including senior forward David Coward, who scored a game-high 20 points.

Bunton led Clovis with 15 points and eight rebounds on four of 14 shooting.

“He’s hard as nails,” Amarillo coach John Smith said. “He’s hard to stop.”

The two teams traded off big runs to start the game.

Easterlin scored the first five points of the game, finishing with 11 overall, as Amarillo missed a number of outside shots. But then the Sandies went on a 16-2 run thanks to a few Clovis turnovers and Amarillo passing the ball down low, leading to easy shots.

Phillips, who scored nine points, said Clovis players were doing their own thing out on the court instead of listening to Isler, which led to turnover and mistakes.

After Clovis came back to tie the game at 20 with 4:37 left in the half, neither team led by more than five points for the rest of the game.

The contest then became a half-court game.

“It turned into an old fashioned ground-it-out game,” Smith said. “It came down to who executed in the half court.”