Lady Cats ride big fourth quarter to win

Locked in a sluggish duel with Alamogordo, the Clovis High girls found their way to the free throw line down the stretch on Thursday night.

That always hasn’t been the best thing for the Lady Wildcats, but this time they managed to go 14-for-17 en route to 21 fourth-quarters and pull out a 34-30 District 4-6A win over the Lady Tigers in the regular-season finale for both teams at Rock Staubus Gym.

No matter what happened in the game, the teams were already ticketed for a Monday night rematch at The Rock in the district tournament, set for 7 p.m. By winning — or, at least not losing by more than 14 points — the Lady Cats (9-15, 2-4 district) were bound to host that one as well.

link Staff photo: Tony Bullocks

Clovis sophomore Teya Morris makes a move to drive by Alamogordo freshman defender Calysta Jacob in the first half of Thursday night’s District 4-6A game at Rock Staubus Gymnasium.

“It was ugly, tough, whatever you want to call it, but the girls fought through adversity,” CHS coach Jeff Reed said. “I’ll take an ugly win over an ugly loss any time.”

The deliberate Lady Tigers (11-15, 0-6), somewhat taken out of their game in the first matchup when CHS jumped in front 11-0 en route to a 48-34 win, recovered from a 9-3 deficit midway through the second period in this one and scored 13 consecutive points, including the first six after halftime.

Senior guard Serena Garcia ended the Clovis dry spell — one field goal spanning 17 minutes — with a 3-pointer, then nailed another to pull Clovis to 24-20 with just over four minutes left in the game.

Sophomore guard Teya Morris hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first three minutes for a 6-0 lead, but the Lady Cats scored just three more points before the first 3 by Garcia, who scored all eight of her points in the second half.

Morris, who finished with 17 points, was 11-for-13 from the foul line, including 10-of-11 in the final stanza.

The Lady Cats went from their 2-3 zone to man-to-man in the third quarter, but had a tough time speeding Alamo up.

“We had to come out of our game plan,” Morris said. “They had an advantage on us inside.

“It (Alamo’s slowdown style) was kind of frustrating, but coach Reed told us we just had to play through it.”

It all finally turned in the final 90 seconds when Clovis scored seven points on back-to-back possessions — all from the free throw line.

Senior guard Chelsey Varney made the first of two free throws to make it 26-25, then sophomore Mimi Coleman grabbed the missed second shot and Morris hit a pair of free throws to put the Lady Cats in front.

A traveling call on Alamo led to a technical on Lady Tigers coach Fernando Sanchez. Morris made both shots, then added two more with 38 seconds left after she was fouled by Alamo senior Carina Baca.

The Lady Tigers pulled to 31-30 on two free throws by senior guard Brooke Anderson with 14 seconds left. Garcia was fouled on the inbounds and made 1-of-2 free throws, but Morris grabbed the rebound, then shot and missed only to have Coleman score only the Lady Cats’ third 2-point basket of the game just before time expired.

Anderson led Alamo with 13 points.

“I’m proud of the way the girls fought back at the end,” Reed said. “I thought as long as we kept it close, we could make a run at the end.”

Morris is hopeful the team can put something together in next week’s district tournament.

“We can do it,” she said. “We’re starting to come together. We’ve got to keep jelling together as a team.”