Cats pull away from Rams

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Clovis and Portales came into Friday night’s game at Rock Staubus Gym needing a win, with each having only one victory coming in.

Staff photo: Joshua Lucero

Clovis junior forward Roland Chavez scores over a Portales defender during Friday’s game at Rock Staubus Gym.

After a close first half, the Wildcats pulled away as Tristen Pautler and Tucker Dobbs combined for 53 points in a 71-63 win.

“As a team, we played harder and better than we have all season,” said Pautler, who finished with 28 points.

Trailing 36-33 at halftime, the Rams opened the second half with quick buckets by Jeremie Karnbayge and Junior Ramirez, to take a one-point lead. However, PHS was blanked the rest of the quarter as the Wildcats used their press defense to stymie the Rams.

Wildcats coach Scott Robinson said his team was playing too slow and wanted to speed things up.

“We extended our defense and pressed some in zone and some in man,” Robinson said “We got the game going at a tempo that we wanted, and it enabled us to open the game up.”

Pautler and Dobbs combined for 11 of the Wildcats’ 13 points in the quarter.

“We pushed the ball and got a lot of layups,” Pautler said. “We just played good as a team, we played together.”

The Wildcats kept their foot on the pedal in the fourth quarter as Dobbs scored nine points and Pautler six. The Rams would not go away as Bronte Staugaard scored six points in the period and Paul Conrow got hot in the paint scoring seven, but they ran out of time.

“We battled really hard, especially on defense,” Rams coach Rickie McBroom said. “We’re still learning to play together and we’re still getting our chemistry.”

Staugaard finished with a team-high 18 points, and Karnbayge added 12.

The Wildcats were up 18-15 after the first quarter, but the Rams went on an 8-0 run to begin the second stanza as Conrow had two free throws and a lay-up.

ith Portales leading 26-18, the Wildcats went on a run of their own as Pautler scored seven points and Roland Chavez added four to push Clovis into a halftime lead.

Robinson thought his team had open looks early in the second quarter, but didn’t knock shots down.

“That’s been the story of our season,” he said. “We have not shot the ball well to this point. We came into this game shooting just over 40 percent and we went through one of those (dry) stretches tonight.

“Fortunately, it didn’t last the whole game.”

Both teams will take the court again today as Clovis has a 7 p.m. tipoff at Moriarty while the Rams face Mesilla Valley in their home opener at 4:30 p.m.