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Clovis drops Gallup final

GALLUP — The Clovis Wildcats and Hobbs Eagles had to drive across the state to see each other for the first time in 2018-19. The Wildcats hope the second meetup during district time is a different story.

The Eagles had plenty of scoring and plenty of balance, steadily pulling away to top the Wildcats 88-73 to claim the Gallup Tournament championship Saturday night.

Clovis visited Lovington Tuesday and will host Santa Fe Saturday night.

Rae Tarin had 22 points and hit five of Hobbs’ 13 3-pointers, and five of their six scorers registered double figures. Jalen Goar added 20 for the Eagles (12-5), who won every quarter by a margin between two and five points.

“They have a couple of great 3-point shooters in Tarin and Gore,” Clovis coach Jaden Isler said. “I didn’t feel like we did a bad job contesting them. They just had a good shooting night.”

Isler said he was happy with how the Wildcats (10-5) guarded Jalen Young on the inside, though he did find perimeter points instead with four treys of his own.

The Wildcats got 17 points each from post Bryce Cabeldue and guard Anthony Gutierrez.

“I thought Anthony had a great tournament,” Isler said. “He hadn’t seen a lot of minutes. It’s big of him, as a senior, to accept a reserve role, but then step up when we have injuries.”

The Wildcats are currently without Josiah Lombrana, Malik Phillips and Dominick Urioste. Isler hopes some or all of them will be back by the time district comes up. The Eagles visit the Wildcats Feb. 1.

“You can watch them on film,” Isler said, “but it was good to see just how we guard what they run.”

Jacob Moon scored 12 points, while Dewayne Dawson added 10.

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