Clovis outlasts Rio Grande to reach title game

CLOVIS — Winning basketball games is paramount. But how you win can be almost as significant.

Clovis’ boys basketball team had been blowing teams off the court during the four-game win streak it carried into Friday night’s Griego and Sons Classic semifinal against Rio Grande. This time, though, the Wildcats had to win a different way — by surviving a close one, which they did 55-53.

Clovis staved off a furious Rio Grande rally that had shaved a 55-45 difference down to just two. The Ravens even had a chance to win when Jeremy Lopez took a last-second three from the right elbow. The attempt, however, was short and the Wildcats’ win streak moved to five. As for hanging on to bag a close victory, it was one in a row.

“We had a completely different kind of game than the last four,” Clovis head boys coach Scott Robinson said after his team improved to 6-5. “We had to dig down and find a way to win. And we did that.”

“It was good to know that we could get a 6A win,” Clovis senior Jakeem Wynn said after fighting off foul trouble to lead a balanced Wildcat scoring attack with 12 points. “It was good to see our maturity, learn from our mistakes.”

“It means that we’re coming together,” said Wildcats sophomore Bryce Cabeldue, who scored five of his team’s 12 fourth-quarter points. “In the beginning of the season, we weren’t very good, blowing leads and stuff like that. I think it means we’re growing closer together.”

Rio Grande and Clovis were “closer together” score-wise in the game’s waning seconds, though that didn’t seem possible just a few minutes earlier. Clovis was in command, having turned a previously-close game into a double-digit affair by outscoring the Ravens 14-4 in the third quarter, with Wynn knocking down six of those Wildcat points. What had been a mere 29-27 Clovis lead at the break, had become a 43-31 difference as the fourth quarter began.

The Wildcats maintained their arms-length advantage for most of the fourth quarter. On one particularly entertaining play, Cabeldue had the ball under the basket with two Rio Grande defenders closing in. The defenders leapt, but Cabeldue ducked under them, before putting in a short, high-arcing shot that made it 49-37. The Ravens, though, kept pecking and pecking away during the fourth, continually shrinking their deficit to single digits.

Still, Clovis led 54-43 midway through the fourth after Brandon Romero’s no-look pass found Cabeldue open for an easy two under the basket. And after Rio Grande crept to within 54-45, the Wildcats’ Dominick Urioste hit one of two from the foul line, giving his team a 10-point advantage with roughly three minutes to go.

Then things got really interesting.

An acrobatic layup and a top-of-the-key trey by Lopez turned it into a 55-50 game with 1:40 left in the fourth.

On Clovis’ next possession, Romero was initially able to fight off Rio Grande’s pressure defense, but he eventually dribbled out of bounds. On the Ravens’ ensuing possession, Romero answered right back with pressure D of his own, staying on Lopez like a glove. But, Lopez somehow buried a fallaway three from the left elbow, and Clovis’ lead had been trimmed to 55-53.

“It was nerve-racking,” Wynn said. “We had to keep our composure.”

“They started coming back really well,” Cabeldue said, “and we just had to stay strong. It’s a good thing that we had that big of a lead (before the comeback).”

On Clovis’ next trip down the floor, a Urioste shot wouldn’t go, but Wynn was there for the offensive rebound. Following a timeout with 50.3 seconds left, Wynn was trying to make an inbounds pass when a foul away from the ball was called. Possession to Rio Grande.

Strangely enough, though, a foul away from the ball was called on Rio Grande while Lopez was looking to inbound. And stranger still, Clovis lost the ball out of bounds on its ensuing possession.

Seconds remained and Rio Grande had that last chance, that last shot to tie or win. The Wildcats knew what they had to do, or at least try to do.

“It’s not anything complicated,” Robinson said. “We were going to make (Lopez) or anybody who had the ball take as tough a shot as we could.”

As the seconds ticked away, it became apparent Lopez was going to attempt the shot. He dribbled and dribbled and dribbled some more near the right arc. With two seconds left, Lopez pump-faked at the right elbow, then launched the shot that fell shy of the hoop as time expired.

Robinson said afterward that he had warned his players not to bite on the pump fake, though it happened nonetheless.

“Luckily for us,” Robinson said, “he missed the shot.”

And with that miss, Clovis earned the right to move on to play Belen for the title Saturday night. It’s an opponent that routed the Wildcats during summer ball, according to Cabeldue, but they are determined to bring about a different outcome, while stretching their win streak to six.

“We’ve got to be tougher,” Cabeldue said. “We’ve got to get a lot more baskets, be mentally strong.”

“They’re better than Rio Grande,” Wynn said. “We’re going to have to take care of the ball and defend.”

“It’ll be a good matchup for us,” Robinson said, noting that Belen plays a much more up-tempo style than the deliberate Rio Grande team. “Belen’s going to want to get up and down the court. The pace will be different (Saturday) night.”