Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Buffs to face 4-1A rival Elida in 11:30 a.m. title game today at The Pit
Brette DeVaney goes up for a shot during Thursday's Class 1A semifinal at Bernalillo High School. DeVaney scored eight points in the Buffaloes' 41-27 victory. The Buffaloes will face Elida in today's 11:30 a.m. title game at The Pit.
BERNALILLO — Melrose used big second and third quarters to push through to the Class 1A girls state championship game with a 41-27 over No. 2 Roy/Mosquero on Thursday.
The third-seeded Lady Buffs (22-10), who captured the previous two Class 2A state titles, will face District 4 rival Elida (25-6) in today's 1:30 p.m. championship game at The Pit in Albuquerque. The teams have split four previous meetings this season.
Down 12-11 after the opening period, the Lady Buffs (22-10) turned things on offensively and defensively, outscoring the third-seeded Lady Longhorns 11-3 over each of the next two quarters.
Senior Reagan Carthel led the effort for Melrose with 13 points, while Nataley Mondragon and Brette DeVaney adding 9 and 8, respectively. Roy/Mosquero (22-4) was led by Riley Clavel with 12 points.
Both teams put on poor shooting displays, with Melrose coach Caleb King saying it may have been one of the Lady Buffs' worst shooting efforts of the year. Melrose shot 27 percent from the field, including 1-for-20 from beyond the arc.
But they weren't as bad as Roy/Mosquero's problems, as the Lady Longhorns hit just 15 percent of their shots. Coach Bob Libby said his team was simply overmatched by the Lady Buffs.
"We got tired," Libby said. "They kept running people in and out and they had the numbers - we don't. Melrose is good. They have a very good team, and that's all we could do."
Early in the second stanza, Clavel had to leave the game momentarily with a bloodied nose, something Libby said played a pair in the momentum shift. Despite being her team's leading scorer, the injury clearly had an impact on the eighth-grader.
The second half saw Melrose start to get out on the break.
"We weren't doing a real good outletting it in the first half, (but) we did a better job in the second," King said. "The offense we ran, we've practiced it a lot but never had to do it against a team like that, so it was sloppy in the first. But we made some adjustments and talked about it at half."
