Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Clovis High senior Brian Weiss looks to get around Portales High junior Devin Diaz during Tuesday night's boys matchup at The Rock.
CLOVIS - After a tougher-than-expected weekend in the Joe Armijo Invitational at Albuquerque Academy, it took Clovis High's boys a while the shake out the cobwebs on Tuesday night.
Held to just 19 points in the first half by Portales, the Wildcats erupted with a 20-point third quarter to take control and eventually cruised to a 57-34 victory at Rock Staubus Gym.
The Cats (4-2) struggled to a sixth-place finish in the Academy meet, including a 77-45 loss in Saturday's finale to Hope Christian.
Clovis' size eventually got the better of the Rams, with 6-foot-3 junior forward Champ Gooden posted 15 points while 6-5 junior forward Marvin Cox got all 14 of his in the second half, during which time the Cats outscored PHS 38-12. Clovis had three players with double-figure rebounds - Cox with 13, Gooden with 12 and Nora with 11 - while seniors Emmanuel Diahn with five and Xodus Gomez with four led Portales.
"I've got to give props to (Clovis)," Portales coach Randy McBroom said. "They're big and long, and it was a good opportunity for us to experience that kind of size.
"I thought our kids battled hard. They competed really well."
First-year CHS coach Josh Mattox didn't take credit for any dramatic words of wisdom during the intermission.
"It might've been one of the coolest halftime speeches I've ever made," he said. "I knew we were going to come out of it at some point.
"Defensively, we put some pressure on them. We got some stops, and we were able to get out and run."
Gooden helped keep the Cats close with by tallying eight of his points in the second stanza. Cox was slowed by two early fouls which kept him on the bench for much of the first half.
"They zoned us the whole game," Mattox said. "In the third quarter, we just went high-low with Marvin and Champ and we had a lot of success."
The Rams (3-3) led for much of the first two periods and went into the intermission with a three-point advantage. But they had scoring troubles of their own, and finished with just one player - sophomore guard Paxton Culpepper (12, including three 3-pointers) - scoring more than four points.
It's hard to win a game that way, McBroom acknowledged.
"Their size got to us," he said. "We didn't finish (shots) well in the second half."
Gooden and senior Davian Lucero led their respective teams with three assists apiece.
