Clovis girls expect challenges

CLOVIS — The Clovis girls basketball team was already facing the challenge of trying to rebound from a 10-win season. The offseason, though, may have made that challenge even tougher.

Gone are the players who would have been the Lady Wildcats’ top two returning scorers — Mikyla Harkley to Italy and Madison Tolbert to Virginia. So, Clovis head coach Jeff Reed will have to fashion a competitive lineup the way any coach has to when players either graduate or move away.

And Reed thinks he might have the pieces to do so.

After Friday’s late-afternoon practice at Rock Staubus Gymnasium had concluded, Reed looked ahead to his team’s season opener Tuesday at Cleveland and beyond, and saw some hope for the young Lady ’Cats.

“I feel good about us,” Reed said. “I think we’re going to play tough, I think we’re going to play tough defense and do all those other things. But last year we did all that, we just couldn’t score and it really cost us. We had 10 wins when I think we could’ve won 15 or more.”

Reed backed up that opinion by noting that Clovis last season averaged 43 points per game while holding its opponents to 46. “We shot 50-something percent from the free-throw line, 37 percent from the field, 20 percent from three (-point range),” Reed said. “So all those shooting percentages, all that stuff, has got to go up this year. We’ve got to score. I think we’re going to again play tough defense, rebound, do all those intangible things, but the scoring has got to improve.”

For that offensive boost, Reed is relying on some inexperienced players.

“We’re definitely going to have girls that are going to step up that didn’t get a ton of varsity playing time last year,” Reed said. “And somebody’s going to have to step up and score for us; we didn’t score a lot last year even with those girls (Harkley and Tolbert), so now we’re really in a predicament with that.”

But Reed has confidence in players like senior guards Aydan Everett (5’6”) and Annabelle Martinez (5’4”), and junior post Hanna Nussbaumer (5’11”) to pick the Lady Wildcats up offensively.

“I think (5’7” junior guard/post) Alandra Romero, (5’10” junior post) Skyler Jordan, (5’5” junior guard) Danielle Acuna, some of them can come in and get some scoring as well,” Reed said. “But we’ve got to have it come from somewhere.”

Nussbaumer is recovering from a nasty leg injury she suffered during soccer season, one that required stitches.

Everett is one of the few battle-tested players on Reed’s roster. She is confident in her team’s ability to do what Reed needs, to meld together and lift the offense while maintaining the defensive intensity.

“I think we’re looking pretty good this year,” Everett said after Friday’s practice. “I think we’re going to do really good this season. I think we have a pretty good chance on Tuesday (at Cleveland). I think our defense is pretty solid. As long as we put the ball in the basket I think we’ll be good.”

Senior guard Cierra Jenkins (5’4”) saw some quality varsity time last winter and should be a factor into any success the Lady Wildcats have.

Rounding out Reed’s roster are: senior guard/post Talya Caldwell (5’6”); senior guard/post Alexia Garcia (5’7”); senior guard Jocelyn Webster (5’3”); junior guard Hailey Griego (5’6”); and sophomore guard Luisa Chavez (5’4”).

While Nussbaumer is out, Reed expects his starting lineup to be Jordan, Romero, Everett, Martinez and Jenkins. “And then as we go further in the season, we will look at Hanna being a definite starter and Danielle Acuna maybe getting in that mix some, too,” Reed said. “That’s seven girls that probably have a chance to be legitimate starters as we go through the year.”

That roster will charge up to Rio Rancho for Tuesday’s Cleveland game (6:30 p.m.) not only with a chance to start 1-0, but for a matchup that Reed thinks is almost as crucial as any game Clovis will play this season.

“I definitely want to win it,” Reed said, “because in New Mexico, the way it’s set up, the first game of the season is just as important as the last game because of the playoff deal, how it’s set up to make the playoffs. And a win over Cleveland right now, first game of the season, a win over somebody in their district, would be huge to the seeding committee, the seeding process, for the playoffs later in the year.

“So this is a big game right from the beginning. And we want to go and win that game.”