Clovis girls win third straight

CLOVIS — The Clovis High girls basketball team got off to a fast start Tuesday night, but the early momentum went away.

The Lady Wildcats, though, regained momentum down the stretch and pulled away to a 45-36 win over Lovington at Rock Staubus Gym, improving to 3-1 with their third consecutive win.

The schedule picks up for the Lady Cats in this weekend's Mel Otero Invite at Rio Rancho, but CHS coach Jeff Reed is hoping his team is learning how to finish games.

Clovis overcame a three-point second quarter, falling behind 20-17 when Lovington freshman Hayley Marquez buried a 3-pointer as time expired. But junior guards Teya Morris and Hayley Kidd combined for 19 of their 32 points in the final two stanzas, and CHS finished off the game on a 10-4 run over the final four minutes.

"It would've been nice to blow out Lovington, but we had to go through a situation that hopefully will help us down the road," Reed said.

Meantime, Lovington fell to 1-5 under first-year coach Casey Pack, who was a Clovis boys assistant coach last season before accepting his current position with his alma mater over the summer.

With a relatively young squad of his own, Pack said his team gave it everything it had.

"We played hard," he said. "The attitude and effort was great. At times, we just didn't execute down the stretch."

Pack, coaching girls for the first time since he began his coaching career at Floyd, said he enjoyed coming back to Clovis.

"It was fun," he said. "I had a great time. I love Clovis; it's like my second home."

A basket by senior Monay Phillips and a 3-pointer from Morris staked the Lady Cats to a quick 5-0 lead, and it was 14-6 at the quarter. But after a putback by Phillips nearly two minutes into the second period, the Lady Cats managed only one more point the rest of the half — Morris' tying free throw with nine seconds left — before Marquez gave Lovington what almost seemed like a commanding advantage.

Sophomore Brittni Chavez converted all three shots on a 3-point foul in the final minute of the third stanza, and the Lady Cats added five more points to make it 32-25.

Lovington closed to within three points with the first two baskets of the final period, and senior Japeria Wright's 3 made it 35-32 with just over four minutes left. Kidd countered with a three-point play, and the Lady Cats stretched it out with the final five points in the last minute of play.

Morris went 8-for-10 from the free throw line to finish with 17 points, while Kidd added a personal-best 15. Senior forward Azaria Stewart was Lovington's only double-figure scorer with 14 points.

The Lady Cats face unbeaten Centennial, a Class 6A newcomer, in a 5 p.m. quarterfinal game on Thursday at Rio Rancho.