Trips end well

ALBUQUERQUE — Both the Clovis boys and girls basketball teams didn’t fare as well as they would’ve liked in their weekend tournaments. But each ended their northwest visits with victories to salvage their trips and hopefully bring some momentum back with them.

Young Wildcats evolving

ALBUQUERQUE — The Clovis boys team is young, still figuring things out, and trying to do so without its leading scorer Jacob Moon, who has had an injured Achilles since the season opener at Canyon, Texas, and finally had to be shut down for a while.

Taking all that into account, it’s probably not surprising the Wildcats lost their first two games of this weekend’s Albuquerque Academy Tournament — 63-56 to Hope Christian on Thursday and 74-42 to Eldorado on Friday.

But then it should also be encouraging that the young Wildcats managed to salvage their weekend by routing Albuquerque Academy 81-59 on Saturday.

“We needed to get at least one win out of this thing,” Clovis head boys coach Jaden Isler said, “but I think it showed us where we were, and in some areas and showed us what we can and can’t do. We’ve got to put some work in before the Christmas break.”

The Wildcats had a 20-12 lead by the first quarter’s end and kept on leading. They were up 38-24 at halftime, 57-44 by the end of the third.

Senior Dominick Urioste scored 15 to lead Clovis and tie for the game-high. He was the only Wildcat to reach double figures; Josiah Lombrana was Clovis’ next-highest scorer with nine points.

Clovis’ aim for a tournament championship began with hope and ended with Hope — Hope Christian, that is. The Wildcats already trailed 20-10 at the end of the first quarter and by halftime they were down 37-19.

They played well in the second half, outscoring Hope Christian 37-26, but that early hole proved to be too much to escape.

“Our first halves are hurting us right now,” Isler said. “Part of that is not being a very experienced team and playing morning games (in the tournament), but part of it also is we’ve had to shut down Jacob Moon and due to injury and he’s been our leading scorer in almost every game. So we’re tyring to figure out different lineups without him.”

It was more of the same on Friday night against Eldorado, as the Wildcats had fallen into a 17-9 hole by the first quarter’s end, and though they played even with the Eagles in the second quarter, were outscored 40-17 in the second half.

Being without Moon is really hurting.

“We really haven’t adjusted well yet,” Isler said. “We’ve kind of had to do it on the fly in practice time because we’re in a tournament setting. But it’s going to force younger guards to step up into that role and we’re going to have to use multiple people to make up for it.”

And they’ll be making up for until well into January. Isler expects Moon to be out for 3-4 weeks.

“That’s obviously changed the dynamics of our team when you lose a senior who’s been our top scorer in two of the three games we played (before he was shut down),” Isler said. “It hurts us right now because we’re a new team in a new system, but I think it can help us down the road as we move through this next month without him.”

Girls finish strong

RIO RANCHO — Clovis head girls coach Jeff Reed sees it, he sees his Lady Wildcats coming oh so close to being a very good team.

A nip here, a tuck there. Reed doesn’t think they’re very far away, despite losing the first two games of the Mel Otero Invitational in Rio Rancho — 44-37 to Centennial on Thursday and 60-48 to Las Cruces on Friday.

“We were in every game,” Reed said. “Centennial came in ranked No. 9 in the state. We had chances to beat them and fell short and didn’t take chances that we could’ve gotten. ... It means that we’re right there on the cusp of doing stuff.”

Good stuff, like beating Albuquerque High 48-37 on Saturday before heading home.

Clovis was beating Centennial 10-8 after one quarter Thursday, trailing only 17-16 at halftime, and tied at 26 after the third period.

But Centennial outscored the Lady ’Cats 18-11 in the fourth to take the victory.

In Friday’s result, Las Cruces appeared to have Clovis at arm’s length, but not so fast, said Reed.

“It was really closer than that,” Reed said. “It was a close game back and forth.”

Saturday against Albuquerque, Clovis led just 22-18 at halftime, but pulled away in the third quarter. Madison Tolbert finished the game with 22 points.

“Today (Saturday), we were able to finally get over the top and do it,” Reed said. “We had a nice run and got up by double digits and we were able to keep that and get the win. Not exactly where we wanted to be, but we were in every game this weekend and had chances. I told the girls, ‘I’d be really worried, really scared if we were badly beaten, but we were right there.’

“Our record is 3-5 right now, but we could easily be 7-1, 6-2, something like that. So I said, ‘Don’t get caught up where our record is right now, we can still have a great season. Hopefully, they’ll take that to heart.”