Lady 'Cats top Lubbock

CLOVIS - From the time Clovis forward Madison Tolbert won the opening tipoff, the Lady Wildcats were in control of Tuesday night's game against Lubbock at Rock Staubus Gymnasium.

The Lady 'Cats led from Teya Morris' early trey until the game-ending buzzer sounded, earning a 42-27 win, their second in a row.

And that gave Clovis a 5-3 record, pretty good for a team that went 10-18 last winter.

"We're already at the halfway point of how many games we won last year," Lady Wildcats head coach Jeff Reed said. "I'll take wins however I can get them."

Clovis came out with a crackle Tuesday night, determined to be pace-setters, and fashioned a 12-4 lead by the first quarter's end.

"I told them before the game ... let's have a great start," Reed said. "The energy, the enthusiasm, the great start. I said (after the game), 'Guys, that set the tone for the whole game. We need more of that."

The win came three nights after Clovis hammered Valley 43-30 in the Mel Otero Tournament consolation game in Rio Rancho.

"Oh, we came in with the momentum from last weekend," said Morris after tossing in a game-high 16 points, 7 in the first quarter. "We just came out with a lot of energy, which helped us."

Clovis' defense was solid throughout the night, holding Lubbock to 4, 5 and 5 points in the first, second and third quarters, respectively.

After Morris' three broke Clovis onto the scoreboard, a driving layup from Tolbert, a Kaydee Weaver hoop, a Syndi Hill free throw and consecutive Morris buckets, comprised the Lady Wildcats' 12 first-quarter points.

In the second quarter, though, Clovis' offense turned desert-dry. The Lady 'Cats went scoreless in the period until the 3:47 mark, when Tolbert sank two foul shots. With 2:10 left in the second, an underneath basket from freshman Mikyla Harkley finally gave the Wildcats their first field goal of the quarter. They didn't score again until three seconds remaining before halftime, when Tolbert put back her own miss on the fast break.

An unkind rim was sometimes responsible for the dry spell. There were some open baskets missed, some good Lubbock defense. There was even some old-fashioned brick-laying. As a result, Clovis was only up 18-9 at halftime, instead of a lead that seemed like it should've been well into double digits.

"I don't know, it kind of didn't go the way we wanted it to in the second quarter," Morris said. "Our shots wouldn't fall. We just couldn't buy a basket in the second quarter."

"I told them (at halftime), 'We're burning a lot of energy to only have X amount of a lead, whatever it was," Reed said. "If we're going to burn all that energy, let's have a bigger lead.'"

The drought continued for a while in the third quarter, as Tolbert couldn't get one to go on the second half's opening possession. A minute and a half later, Morris was called for an offensive foul.

On the Wildcats' next possession, though, Morris' fast-break layup made it 20-9, and the purple and white was crackling again. Morris scored Clovis' last points of the third quarter on a feathery mid-range jumper, and her team kept it rolling in the fourth.

Next up is a tough Portales team that improved to 7-0 Tuesday and already holds a 67-47 win over Clovis. Those Lady Rams will visit the Lady Wildcats at The Rock on Saturday night.

"It's going to be tough," Morris said, "but I think we can do it. We have momentum coming in, like we did for this game."