Hobbs rallies past Clovis in second half

CMI staff

HOBBS — With 22 minutes down in Ralph Tasker Arena, the Clovis Wildcats appeared well on their way to making a statement that next Thursday would be no cakewalk for the Hobbs Eagles.

link Hobbs News-Sun photo: Jonathan Miller

Clovis guard Willie McCray goes up for a third-quarter layup as Hobbs’ Devante Brown tries to make the late block on the play. McCray scored 20 points, but Hobbs took a 77-52 victory.

But in the final 10 minutes, nothing went right for Clovis, and a 10-point lead ended up turning into a 77-52 loss to the Eagles on Friday night.

Devante Brown scored 18 points to lead four in double figures for the Eagles (19-7, 3-1), who outscored Clovis 36-11 in the final period after pulling into a tie at the end of the third quarter.

The Wildcats (12-14, 0-4), who got 15 points each from Kamal Cass and Willie McCray, led 39-29 with 4:07 left in the third stanza before the game turned.

“We played really great for 22 minutes, and really poorly for 10,” Clovis coach Matt King said. “We took care of the ball, we made easy shots, we ran offense and we made them run offense. The last 10 minutes, they didn’t have to run offense they were in transition. We didn’t run offense because we kept turning the ball over.”

Jordan Chavarria had 16 points, Gabriel Jurado 14 and Kelvin Jones 13 for the Eagles, who now face Carlsbad on Monday night in a neutral-site tiebreaker for the top spot in the district tournament.

A Clovis win would have changed little for the Wildcats’ playoff situation, as they were locked into the district’s No. 3 position and would have been on the road on Thursday anyway. But now the Wildcats won’t know where they’re going for a few days.

“We know both of the opponents,” King said. “We just need to get back to work, work on things we know we can do better. We’ve got a district tournament game, we’ve got to go out and win. It’s a new season.”

The Wildcats are likely to make the playoffs even with a losing record in the 16-team field, as only 13 Class 5A teams currently sit above .500. But without a good showing in the district tournament, Clovis will likely fall in the bottom four seeds.

Boys

District 4-5A

Hobbs 77, Clovis 52

Clovis (12-14, 0-4) — Marquese Gaither 1-3 0-0 2, Kamal Cass 7-13 1-5 15, D.D. Egbert 2-2 0-0 4, Willie McCray 4-9 6-7 15, Brandon Brewer 0-1 0-0 0, Kaine Bender 2-5 0-2 4, Justin Henderson 0-5 0-0 0, Roland Chavez 3-3 0-0 6, Traivon Sopila 3-5 0-0 6. Totals 22-46 7-14 52.

Hobbs (19-7, 3-1) — Cayson Meridyth 1-8 1-2 4, Trey Nelson 1-5 0-0 2, Andre Foster 2-4 1-2 7, Devante Brown 7-13 4-5 18, Adrian Trevino 1-2 0-0 3, Jordan Chavarria 7-11 2-4 16, Gabriel Jurado 5-10 4-7 14, Kelvin Jones 6-10 1-2 13. Totals 30-63 13-22 77.

Clovis 12 18 11 11 — 52

Hobbs 16 10 15 36 — 77

3-pointers — Clovis 1-10 (McCray 1-4, Henderson 0-4, Brewer 0-1, Gaither 0-1), Hobbs 4-8 (Foster 2-2, Trevino 1-2, Meridyth 1-4). Rebounds — Clovis 23 (Egbert 4, Henderson 4), Hobbs 30 (Jurado 9). Junior varsity — Hobbs 109, Clovis 75.