Lady Cats beat Cruces in tourney final

Staff report

RIO RANCHO — Clovis recovered from a shaky start Saturday, and dominated the final three quarters en route to a 46-28 win over Las Cruces High on Saturday to claim the Mel Otero Invite title.

Senior guard Danni Williams had 15 points to lead all scorers despite drawing early defensive attention, and Clovis (7-1) blitzed the Bulldawgs 29-5 over the second and third quarters.

“The first quarter, they hit four 3s, and that shell-shocked us,” Clovis coach Jeff Reed said of the Lady Cats’ early 16-7 deficit. “In the second, we went to man-to-man, and we shell-shocked them. They couldn’t do anything against our pressure. Defense was the key the rest of the game.”

Senior guartd Nichele Hyman added 13 points for Clovis, which wanted to avoid a repeat of its 45-41 loss to Abilene Wylie at last weekend’s Tournament of Champions title game at Canyon, Texas.

“Some other people stepped up,” Reed said. “They went to a box and one on Danni, which also threw us off early. We made some adjustments, and other people got things going.”

Reed said senior post Shelby Jones, who added nine pointsin Saturday’s victory, is probably about 80 percent recovered from a knee injury originally sustained . He said the senior post isn’t 100 percent healthy, but is not in a position where she needs to play limited minutes.

Jayden Perez had 12 points to lead Las Cruces (6-2), but had nobody else notched more than five.

The Lady Cats have a few days off before Friday night’s matchup against Cibola.

“We’re 7-1,they’re undefeated,” Reed said. “It will be a big game Friday night at The Rock.”