Lady Cats cruise at Cibola

ALBUQUERQUE — Brittany Blackmon and Aimee Hilburn took turns dominating the game and Tori Quintana continued her torrid 3-point shooting as unbeaten Clovis rolled to a 70-45 win over Cibola on Tuesday in a District 4-5A girls basketball game.

After squandering a double-digit lead in the second quarter, the Lady Wildcats (23-0, 5-0 district) took control of the game with a dominating third quarter led by Blackmon, who scored 16 of her 22 points in the period.

Scoring on its first six possessions of the second half, Clovis outscored Cibola 24-2 in the third quarter, turning a 32-28 halftime lead into a 26-point rout.

“We felt like we weren’t moving our feet in the first half,” Clovis coach Miles Watters said. “We came out and played hard on defense and started valuing the ball more. We moved the ball around and started getting good shots.

“We had a 12-point lead in the first half but then we started getting really sloppy with the ball and that allowed (Cibola) to cut the lead to four.”

Hilburn scored 19 of her season-high 24 points in the first half when Blackmon was in foul trouble and Quintana added 12 points on four 3-pointers. Quintana, a 5-foot-6 junior point guard who had knee surgery in the spring, has 15 3-pointers in the last three games.

“Part of it is getting in shape,” Watters said. “Part of it is gaining confidence in her knee.

“Earlier in the year when she started missing some shots she’d stop looking. Now she’s shooting with a lot of confidence.”

Watters also praised the play of senior guard Roxanne Luera, who played extra minutes with sophomore Tori Northcutt out with mononucleosis.

Holli Ward led Cibola (11-9, 2-3) with 14 points and Nikhol Martinez added 11.