Guard gets hot, boosts Artesia to win over Cats

CLOVIS — At least to the average person, Nick Sanchez was hardly noticeable in the first half of Thursday’s boys matchup between Artesia and Clovis High at The Rock.

Suddenly, though, the Bulldogs’ junior point guard made a lot of noise. Sanchez scored 16 of his team’s 18 third-quarter points and finished with 22 as Artesia rallied for a 53-48 victory over the still-winless Wildcats.

Actually, Sanchez got into a bit of a shootout with CHS senior guard Juan Hernandez, who tallied 10 of Clovis’ 13 third-period tallies. Artesia (4-2), playing its first game away from home this season, closed a 19-9 Cats lead at the quarter to five at halftime, then pulled even 37-37 through three stanzas.

Senior guard Darius Bishop took over from there, scoring eight of his 11 points in the final segment. His 3-pointer with 6:37 left put the Bulldogs in front for good, and they eventually led by nine before a furious last-minute rally had the Cats trailing 51-48 and with possession in the closing seconds.

Sanchez then sealed it with a midcourt steal and breakaway layup as time expired.

“He’s only a junior, but he had 21 in the (Class 4A) state championship last year (a loss to Del Norte),” Artesia coach Mike Mondragon said of Sanchez. “One of the things he does so well is get other players involved.”

Meantime, the Cats (0-6) simply haven’t been able to get over the hump. They’ve had chances to win late in the second half of four games so far.

“That’s the best, energy-wise, that we’ve played,” CHS boys coach Jaden Isler said. “(The Bulldogs are) a good team and they’ve got an experienced point guard, but we’re happy with the effort. It’s an improvement over the first five games.”

Clovis came out on fire early, finishing the opening canto on an 11-3 run as seven players contributed to the scoring column in the frame. But outside of the third-quarter eruption by Hernandez, which included two long 3-pointers, the Cats struggled on offense the rest of the way.

“We started off pressing, just to be attacking,” Isler said. “But we had too many turnovers (19), which is going to hurt our chances to stay in a game.

“Artesia’s probably a better team than most of the ones we’ve played, but we gave ourselves a chance.”

Hernandez finished with 16 points for Clovis, while junior forward R.J. Nora added 10.

“He’s streaky when he’s getting (shots) to fall,” Isler said, referring to Hernandez. “We did a good job on Sanchez, I thought. We just let him get loose in the third quarter.”

Mondragon said he was just happy to survive.

“We’re really inexperienced on the varsity level,” he said. “I think we had a lack of focus (early), especially on the defensive end.”

It’s part of a busy stretch for the Cats, who began a run of five games over seven days.

On Saturday, they were to host Las Cruces-based Centennial. From Monday through Wednesday, they host the six-team Griego & Sons tournament, facing another Cruces contingent, Organ Mountain, at 7 p.m. on Monday.