Clovis girls stay alive with win at Santa Fe

SANTA FE — Sometimes you can live by the 3-pointer, and other times you can die by it.

Santa Fe High’s girls were “on fire” early, Clovis High girls coach Jeff Reed said, but when they cooled off the Lady Wildcats took over and pulled out a 59-54 first-round win over the Demonettes on Tuesday in the District 2-6A tournament.

Clovis, seeded fifth in the six-team meet, faces third-seeded Sandia, a 58-25 winner over Manzano, in a 6 p.m. tipoff tonight in Albuquerque.

Junior guard Teya Morris matched a career high with 29 points, the third time she’s done that this season. Meantime, the Lady Cats (10-17) survived 11 Santa Fe High 3-point baskets.

“They really lived off that tonight,” Reed said of the No. 4 Demonettes (11-16). “It helped them, and then it hurt them. They didn’t get a lot of free throws (5-of-7 for the game), and they missed a lot (of 3s), too.”

Santa Fe High opened a 31-23 lead with seven first-half 3s, but managed only seven third-quarter points as the Lady Cats pulled even.

“We weathered the (early) storm,” Reed said. “I told (the team), ‘If you do what you did in the third quarter, we’ll win.

“This is probably the first time we’ve put together four quarters in a long time. We did a pretty decent job of handling their pressure tonight; we didn’t give them a lot of easy stuff.”

Sophomore guard Taylor Salazar had five of the Demonettes’ 3-pointers and finished with 17 points, while junior guard Adonica Baca-Martinez added three 3s and 13 points and junior guard Kaya Suina chipped in 11 points.