Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff writer
Clovis High senior Danni Williams was happy to commit early for a college basketball career. She feels the same way about breaking the Lady Wildcats’ career scoring record.
The 5-foot-10 guard, who has signed to play at Texas A&M, tallied 77 points in three games in a span of just more than 24 hours in Canyon’s Tournament of Champions over the weekend, giving her 1,728 points. Former CHS standout Antiesha Brown, now at the University of New Mexico, had the record at 1,662 from 2006-10.
“I always wanted to break the record,” Williams said Sunday. “It’s a honor, but I planned to break it early (this season) so I didn’t have to worry about it.”
CHS coach Jeff Reed said Williams is helped by her ability to score in a variety of ways — from drives to the basket to deep 3-pointers.
“She’s good at creating her own shot,” he said. “I’m thinking she’s going to have more than 2,000 points in her career, and that record is going to stand for a long time.”
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Texico’s Justin Rucker has had quite a senior year.
After sustaining a concussion early in a Sept. 26 football game against Farwell that kept him out for the balance of the season, Rucker returned to action last Tuesday in spectacular fashion on the basketball court. His buzzer-beating 3-pointer — ironically, against Farwell — gave the Wolverines a season-opening 60-59 win over the Steers.
Rucker said it was his third sports-related concussion, and pretty much ended his football season at that point.
Rucker, who added 21 points in Saturday’s 61-43 win over Albuquerque-based Native American Community Academy at Portales, is easy enough to spot on a basketball court with his thick, protective glasses, which he wears while playing sports. He said he sustained an injury to his right eye in second grade, and if he were to get hit just right on it again he could lose sight in the eye.
“At the state basketball tournament, the PA announcer said I looked like I was the top student in my chemistry class,” he recalled after Saturday’s game in the Eastern New Mexico Tip-off at Greyhound Arena.
Farwell and Texico will meet again on Saturday in the Farwell Invitational, and could play another time in Texico’s holiday event Dec. 29-31.
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It was a busy weekend for tournaments with eight of the nine area high schools — everyone except Texico — involved in either a boys or girls event, or both.
This weekend will be active again, with all except Grady and Clovis Christian playing in a tourney.
In addition to the Farwell event, the Clovis boys will be at Albuquerque Academy while the girls head to Rio Rancho for the Mel Otero Invite and a possible semifinal showdown against fellow Class 6A contender La Cueva.
Other events have Fort Sumner at Cloudcroft, Melrose and Bovina at Elida and Muleshoe at Abernathy.
Dave Wagner is a sports writer for Clovis Media Inc. He can be reached at 575-763-6991 or email:
