Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
TEXICO — It’s not hard to compare the current Melrose Buffaloes to the Elida boys team of a couple of years ago.
Extraordinarily young, the Tigers took a few lumps along the way. Now, though, it was Elida dealing out the punishment in a 60-24 rout of Melrose on Wednesday in an EPAC tournament boys quarterfinal matchup.
The majority of Elida’s core players are now in the junior class, including guard Ever Varela, who led a balanced attack with 17 points to help the Tigers (12-2) advance to a 6 p.m. semifinal game on Friday against San Jon (5-4).
“We were a little excited; we just turned the ball over (early),” Varela said. “We played well today. We penetrated and passed the ball well. We gave our posts a chance to do what they do.”
Melrose (1-11), which scored its first win of the season on Tuesday over House, hung close for a quarter, trailing 10-9. But they were outscored 41-10 over the middle two stanzas.
“I’m happy; all 12 boys got a lot of playing time,” Elida coach Darrell Chenault said. “We said before the game we wanted to have a massive defensive effort. We wanted to hold them below 40 points.”
Another junior, Tom Sullivan, added 10 points for the Tigers as all but two of their players scored. Sophomore Call Barnard led the Buffs with seven points.
“Elida deserves to win,” Melrose coach Casey Pack said. “Their young kids have taken their lumps (in the past). Probably from that adversity, they’re going to have some success.”
As for his own team, he admits it’s a learning process.
“At times, we’re doing some good things,” Pack said. “At other times, we take a step back.
“Our schedule has probably hurt us a little bit. We’ve played some good teams that got on us early.”
Elida has already played San Jon, having beaten the Coyotes earlier this season on the road.
“We just have to play Friday like we did today,” Varela said. “But we’ll have to cut down on our turnovers a little.”
In other EPAC games Wednesday:
* Junior Courtland Luscombe scored 21 points and Texico (10-2) pulled away from Fort Sumner in the second half to win 57-41 and advance to Friday’s 8:15 p.m. semifinal against Dora (9-3). Berry Stinnett led the Foxes (2-7) with 11 points.
* Elida (12-2) advanced to a 2:30 p.m. Friday girls semifinal against Texico with a 48-39 win over Floyd. behind Lindsey Smith’s 13 points. Eighth-grader Tori Tucker paced the Lady Broncos (3-7) with 15 points.
* In a wild contest, House lost its three leading scorers to fouls and finished with four players, but got a free throw by Liz Paradez with two seconds left — she had gone 0-for-8 to that time — to edge Logan 55-54. The Cowgirls, who led by 12 points in the third quarter, got 22 points from senior Sara Lee and take on Melrose (7-4) in a 4:15 p.m. semfinal on Friday.
Nicole Martinez paced the Lady Longhorns (3-8) with 17 points.
Game 12: Texico 57, Fort Sumner 41
Thursday
Game 15: Floyd (3-6) vs. House (3-7), 4:45 p.m., junior high gym
Game 16: Grady (2-8) vs. Logan (4-6), 4:45 p.m., high school gym
Game 18: Melrose (1-10) vs. Fort Sumner (2-7), 5th place, 8:15 p.m., high school gym
Friday
Game 20: Game 16 loser vs. Game 15 loser (9th place), 12:45 p.m., high school gym
Game 23: San Jon (5-4) vs. Elida (12-2), semifinals, 6 p.m., high school gym
Game 24: Texico (10-2) vs. Dora (9-3), semifinals, 7:45 p.m., high school gym
Girls
Wednesday
Game 9: Elida 48, Floyd 39
Game 11: House 55, Logan 54
Thursday
Game 13: Fort Sumner (3-4) vs. Grady (2-6), 3:05 p.m., junior high gym
Game 14: Dora (3-9) vs. San Jon (5-4), 3:05 p.m., high school gym
Game 17: Logan (3-8) vs. Floyd (3-7), 5th place, 6:30 p.m., high school gym
Friday
Game 19: Game 14 loser vs. Game 13 loser (9th place), 11 a.m., high school gym
Game 21: Texico (9-3) vs. Elida (11-2), semifinals, 2:30 p.m., high school gym
Game 22: House (8-2) vs. Melrose (7-4), semifinals, 4:15 p.m., high school gym
