Lady Cats roll to victory

CLOVIS – A slow start on Friday night didn't seem to bother the Clovis High girls basketball team.

Trailing 10-5 midway through the opening period, the Lady Wildcats held Roswell High to just five points the rest of the half and walked away with a 61-31 District 4-5A victory at Rock Staubus Gym.

On a night where leading scorer Zarai Lewis was relatively quiet, Clovis (17-4, 1-1 district) found the points well spread out in putting their 61-14 loss at Hobbs the previous week in the rear view mirror.

"Teams are really keying on Z right now," CHS girls coach Jeff Reed said. "It's nice that other people are scoring for us."

He said he figured it was just a matter of time for his squad to get on track.

"I was happy we held their leading scorer (senior Daci Smith) to five points," Reed said. "I knew if we shut her down and didn't give them open 3s, we were going to be all right."

Sophomore guard Alayna Tarin hit a pair of 3-pointers to help the Lady Coyotes (9-13, 0-2) get out to their early lead. But the shots soon dried up, and Clovis cruised into halftime with a 28-15 cushion.

It only got worse from there for Roswell High.

Now the heavy work comes for the Lady Cats, who play Hobbs once and Carlsbad twice before ending the regular season at Roswell High on Feb. 17.

"I think we can win these games if we can just step up to it," said senior post Shalanda Lefevre, who came off the bench for just the second time this season and finished with seven points. "We just have to know we can do it."

Ten players scored for the Lady Cats, led by junior post Kailyn Jefferson with 14. Meantime, Lewis' opportunities were limited and she finished with two field goals and 10 points.

Clovis attacked the basket reasonably well and put together a 19-for-28 night at the free throw line. Meantime, the Lady Coyotes' long-range game dried up and they were just 3-for-7 on charity shots.

Lefevre said she really didn't mind coming off the pines.

"I took it as a good thing," she said. "Coming off the bench isn't always hard."

She was glad to see her team get cooking after the slow start.

"It definitely took the pressure off when we started hitting shots," Lefevre said.

Tarin never scored after her early 3s, but they were enough to allow her to share team scoring honors with sophomore Bryana Castro and freshman Ada Vasquez.

Roswell High 63, Clovis 60 (boys) – At Roswell, the Coyotes rode 24 points from senior forward Ivan Miramontes to a tight victory over the Wildcats.

Roswell High (12-10, 1-1 district) opened a nine-point lead with a 25-point third quarter and held off the Cats (10-11, 0-2) down the stretch.

Junior guard Manny Fuentes added 12 points and junior forward Steve McCaskill 10 for the Coyotes. Junior post Champ Gooden finished with 18 points for Clovis, while junior forward J.J. Jones added three 3s and 11 points.

Clovis squads are now idle until facing Hobbs on Friday – the boys at Hobbs, the girls at The Rock.