Cats take OT victory over Rockets

link Staff photo: Kevin Wilson

Clovis junior Roland Chavez goes up for two of his 13 points during the second half of Tuesday night’s game against Roswell Goddard at Rock Staubus Gymnasium.The Wildcats beat the Rockets 85-78 in overtime.

Staff writer

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Four games in five nights just wasn’t enough for the Clovis Wildcats.

In what looked like a game that would escape the Wildcats like so many had recently, Clovis turned the tides and outscored Goddard 43-25 over the fourth quarter and overtime to steal an 85-78 victory Tuesday night at Rock Staubus Gymnasium.

\Senior guard Tristen Pautler scored 23 points to lead four players in double figures for Clovis. Junior guard Tucker Dobbs added 17 points and junior forward Roland Chavez 13 for Clovis, and each pulled down an offensive rebound that loomed large in ending a seven-game skid.

“Hard work finally pays off,” said Dobbs, who scored nine points between the fourth and the OT. “We’ve kept working through all of this. To finally get a ‘dub’ is really nice. Hopefully, we don’t take any more steps back after this point.”

Chavez grabbed nine rebounds to lead Clovis (4-12), none more important than his buzzer-beating putback to knot the game at 67 as time expired in regulation.

The Wildcats, who had close-but-no-cigar losses against Las Cruces and Lovington during this most recent stretch, battled back from a 13-point deficit with six minutes remaining.

“I’m happy for the kids, proud of them,” Clovis coach Scott Robinson said. “This is a tough stretch we’ve had, (but) they’ve worked hard and done everything I asked of them.”

The Wildcats led for just over four minutes all night, and took the lead for good with 1:40 left in overtime on a pair of free throws by Eli Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who scored eight points, went 1-for-2 from the line on Clovis’ next possession, but Dobbs got the offensive rebound and was fouled on a putback attempt. Goddard’s Gavin Hess was called for a technical on the play, and it turned into a five-point Clovis possession on eight free throw attempts — 1-for-2 by Rodriguez, 3-for-4 by Dobbs and 1-for-2 by Devin Roberts — to push the lead to 81-75 with 1:16 to play.

The Rockets (8-10), who got a game-high 24 points and 11 boards from Trent Johnson before he fouled out late, were sent back to Roswell wondering how win No. 9 slipped through their fingers.

Anthony Mestas, in his first year coaching the Rockets after 10 with Hagerman, felt Hess’ technical ended the game, but a 2-of-6 fourth quarter from the line lost it.

“We didn’t make free throws,” said Mestas, a former Wildcats basketball player making his first visit to The Rock since his 1998 graduation. “We make free throws, the game’s over. We missed bunnies, too. But give them credit, Clovis just wanted it. They wanted it, and they kept fighting.

“You know the saying — nothing tougher than a Clovis Wildcat.”

The schedule, though, has given Clovis a run for its money, with Tuesday ending a stretch of five games in eight days.

Clovis is off until Friday, when it visits the Albuquerque metro area for games at top-ranked Cleveland on Friday and Atrisco Heritage on Saturday.

“It will be a tough back-to-back,” Robinson said.