Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
ROSWELL — After a week off, there was no sign of rust for the Clovis boys basketball team. Not even on the road.
The Wildcats played their first District 4-5A road game of the season Friday night and landed enough Identified Flying Objects through the hoop to hang on and beat Roswell 62-54.
It was Clovis’ first game action since posting one of the biggest program wins in years by edging Hobbs a week earlier at Rock Staubus Gymnasium. Friday there was no letdown after the emotional victory and subsequent week off, as the ’Cats improved to 3-0 in district, 17-6 overall.
“It was just a grind-it-out game,” Clovis head coach Jaden Isler said, “and whoever was going to make the plays down the stretch was going to win. Our kids battled through some adversity and made the plays down the stretch, so I’m proud of our boys, especially in a tough road game.”
Which was tough throughout. Clovis led just 16-15 after one period, 29-25 at halftime. By the end of three quarters, the Coyotes had trimmed their deficit to just 43-41.
But Clovis kept them at arm’s length in the fourth and prevailed for their third consecutive district win and fifth straight win overall.
“I feel like we did a pretty good job,” Isler said. “We held them to two field goals in the whole first half.”
Roswell, though, stayed very much in it by getting to the foul line 20 times during that first half and hitting all 20 shots. 100 percent from the stripe will usually keep any team afloat.
Roswell from the field was another story.
“So really, I thought we defended them well,” Isler said. “On the road you’re not going to get many calls, so they got almost all their points in the first half from the free throw line.”
Bryce Cabeldue tossed in a team-high 15 points for Clovis. Anthony Gutierrez and Jacob Moon added 12 points each for the Wildcats.
Roswell’s Tarren Burrola led all scorers with 26 points. Taymon Burrola contributed 15 points for the Rockets, who dropped to 16-7 overall, 1-2 district. By combining for 41 points, the Burrolas accounted for 76 percent of Roswell’s scoring.
To the man cave
Clovis faces yet another road trip, this time to Carlsbad High, where they’ll face the Cavemen Tuesday night at 7.
The Wildcats’ undefeated district record will be on the line against the team they beat at the start of district play nearly two weeks ago. Though Carlsbad is 0-3 district (13-10 overall), the ’Cats will take nothing for granted, especially since the Cavemen only lost to them 52-48 in the season’s first meeting.
“There are no nights off,” Isler said. “They’ve got really good players and a good coach (Jamaal Brown), so we’re going to prepapre like we do for everybody in district. We have to make sure our kids are prepared and know what’s coming and go battle it out.”