Lady Cats make short work of another foe

Clovis High's girls continued to cruise in the Plateau Wireless Holiday Classic at Rock Staubus Gym. They may get a stiff test in tonight's championship game.

Much as they had Thursday against Albuquerque High, the Lady Cats dominated Class 2A county foe Texico from the get-go, rolling to a 20-2 first-quarter lead and a 57-12 victory over the outmanned Lady Wolverines.

CHS (10-1) faces Gallup (9-1) in the 6 p.m. championship game. Clovis gave the Class 4A power its only loss of the season in the finals of the Gallup Invitational on Dec. 8.

"I told the girls, 'We'd better not let Gallup get redemption on our homecourt,'" Lady Cats coach Jeff Reed said. "They're one of the better 4A teams in the state."

CMI staff photo: Tony Bullocks

Texico senior Lindsey Foote tries to work her way around Clovis junior Kyleigh Guthal in the second half of Friday night's game in the Plateau Wireless Holiday Classic at the Rock.

Sophomore guard Danni Williams scored 15 points and added four assists for the Lady Cats, whose 14 dimes were spread among eight players. Senior Jenna Sievers added 11 points and sophomore Shelby Jones 10 as 10 Clovis players scored.

"I asked the girls to play with intensity for 32 minutes and I thought we (did that)," Texico coach Richard Luscombe, whose team is adjusting to the recent loss to a season-ending injury of 6-foot-1 senior Shaylee Anderson. "They've just got a lot of really good athletes; they were able to do some things to us and we couldn't make the adjustments we needed."

Clovis forced the Lady Wolverines (5-4) into 10 first-quarter turnovers. The Lady Cats played their bench extensively and worked on a number of different defenses throughout the game.

"We had some team goals (for the game), but there's just not a whole lot you can do," Reed said. "I'm sure Texico will have a good season and Coach Luscombe will get them where they need to be. They played tough and didn't give up tonight."

Texico finished the game with only four field goals and committed 29 turnovers. The Lady Wolverines got four points from freshman Brianna Reyna.

"When we got into our offensive sets, I thought we did a better job of getting some shots tonight," Luscombe said. "They just force you to start your offense a little farther out than you want to."

Texico will face Andrews (Texas) in today's first game at 10 a.m. The Lady Mustangs beat Albuquerque High 60-52 on Friday and were to play Amarillo Caprock for third in the afternoon, but the pairings were switched because Andrews and Caprock had already faced each other on Thursday.