FRIDAY PREPS: Melrose, Dora advance to finals

CAPITAN — Melrose and Dora were slated to play for the boys championship on Saturday night in Capitan’s Ben Lujan tournament.

In Friday’s semifinals, the Buffaloes rolled over Ruidoso 64-25 while the Coyotes posted a 54-37 victory against the host Tigers.

In girls championship semifinals, Melrose clobbered Eunice 56-16 and was to face Capitan, a 48-31 winner over Dora, in Saturday’s title tilt.

Sophomore Cy Draper led Melrose’s boys (7-1) with 22 points, while junior Michael Cardonita and sophomore Josiah Roybal netted 11 apiece. The Buffs led by 22 points at halftime after outscoring the Class 3A Warriors 19-3 in the second stanza.

Senior Tao Barnes tallied 10 points for Ruidoso (4-3).

Dora (8-1), led by 31 points from senior Steven Masini, outscored Capitan 26-12 in the second half to pull away. High scorers for the Tigers (3-4) were junior Tobyn Taylor with 12, senior Anthony Harris with 11 and junior Edward Garcia with 10.

In girls action, Melrose improved to 8-1 with a dominating win over the Lady Cardinals (3-3), holding Eunice to five second-half points after already leading by 20 at the intermission.

Seniors Isabelle Sena and Paityn Nicholson scored 18 and 16 points, respectively, for the Lady Buffs, while sophomore Aleena Rodriguez netted nine points for Eunice.

Capitan (6-2) jumped on Dora for a 20-5 lead at the quarter and the teams played evenly after that. Junior Haileigh Brown led the Lady Tigers with 17 points while junior Kacee Whipple tallied 11 of her 13 during the first-quarter eruption.

For Dora (7-4), which played Eunice for third place on Saturday, junior Faith Jasso scored 16 points.

In other boys action on Friday:

Clovis Christian 60, Hatch Valley 20 — The Eagles cruised into the finals of Cloudcroft’s Mountain Top Invitational behind 27 points from senior Carter Teune and 13 each from seniors Noah Gershon and Easton Adair. CCS (7-1) was to face unbeaten Cliff (7-0) in Saturday night’s finals.

Clovis Christian led 17-4 and completely dominated the Class 3A Bears (4-4) the rest of the way. Hatch’s high scorer was senior Alexis Silva with five points.

Floydada 123, Bovina 59 — The host Whirlwinds (13-4) lived up to their nickname on Friday, going 49-for-97 from the floor overall and 18-for-45 from 3-point distance.

Floydada, which scored at least 28 points in each period, got nine 3-pointers and 33 points from senior Abran Castillo. Meantime, sophomore Jake Hobbs added 24 points, sophomore Tyrean Henderson 23 and junior Aidan Trevino 15, and those players combined for five 3s.

For the Mustangs (6-6), who didn’t make a 3-pointer in the game, senior Ceasar Amaya poured in 29 points while junior Yandel DeLeon added 12, personal bests for both.

The game was added late after Bovina’s scheduled boys/girls doubleheader on Friday at Adrian was cancelled.