Hawks top Clovis girls in consolation game

CLOVIS — Once upon a time there was a Clovis girls basketball team called the Lady Wildcats. They battled for points and rebounds and were in every game they played. But try as they might, those Lady ’Cats exited 2018 with a 4-8 record.

If it sounds like a familiar tale, think of how Clovis head coach Jeff Reed feels. He’s had to watch the story play out regularly since late November, with seven of the unhappy endings having Clovis fade down the stretch.

Saturday’s consolation game of the Plateau Holiday Classic at Rock Staubus Gymnasium saw the Lady Wildcats defeated 55-47 by Volcano Vista, except the plot unfolded in reverse — with Clovis losing badly early but outplaying Volcano in the fourth quarter, kind of like the classic backwards “Seinfeld” episode.

“We started out slow, got that deficit, then we won the second half,” Reed said. “We won the fourth quarter. Usually we lose the fourth quarter, and we won the fourth quarter this time. The slow start ... that really put us in a hole.”

Clovis already trailed 14-5 after one quarter and was down 24-8 in the second. By halftime, it was a 29-15 difference.

Clovis was behind 39-23 late in the third quarter, but scored the period’s last five points to make it a more reasonable 11-point margin by the start of the fourth. And throughout the final period, Clovis slowly pecked away.

Though Natalia Chavez opened the fourth-quarter scoring by canning a free throw to give Volcano a 40-28 lead, Clovis’ Madison Tolbert hit a running baby hook to make it 40-30.

It looked as though Clovis might then regain possession after a Volcano Vista air ball. Tolbert even stood outside the baseline, getting ready to inbound the ball. The refs, however, saw it differently, ruling the ball went off Clovis and rewarded it to Volcano Vista. And on the ensuing Hawks possession, Chavez nailed a trey to put them up by 13.

The Lady Wildcats answered back quickly, though. On their next possession, Antanishwa Molett completed a three-point play at the line to bring Clovis within 10 again.

Mikyla Harkley’s fast-break basket pulled the Lady ’Cats within 43-35, their first single-digit deficit since the second quarter. The Lady Hawks then staged a 6-2 run and went up by 12, but Clovis still wasn’t done.

After a foul shot made it 49-38, an Annabelle Martinez trey brought the Lady Wildcats within 49-41. Aydan Everett then came up with a quarter-court steal and fed Tajvionna Johnson for a wide-open layup, quickly making it 49-43 with under a minute to go.

After being intentionally fouled, Chavez hit two free throws, giving Volcano an eight-point lead. Martinez answered with a field goal to make it six again, but after another intentional foul, Jaelyn Bates recorded two of her game-high 27 when she sank both free throws and put the Lady Hawks ahead by eight again, this time with 26.9 seconds remaining.

At that point, Volcano had it just about locked up. And seconds later, the Lady Hawks had officially played back to third place in the tournament.

“It was a good win for us,” Volcano Vista head coach Lisa Villareal said. “Obviously, it was not the side of the bracket we wanted to be on, but the girls really got it together and hit some key shots tonight.”

Villareal was impressed with how her team (7-2) warded off Clovis’ fourth-quarter charge.

“It was a good test for us,” she said, “because we haven’t been in a situation where a team is relentless — coming at us, coming at us. ... So it was a good testament to the girls working as a team overall.”

Reed, meanwhile, saw another night end in frustration.

“We just didn’t make shots,” he said. “We knew Volcano Vista was going to press and we knew we’d get some easy opportunities, but we’ve got to finish them when we get them. And then the second half we started finishing them, but you can’t be down 29-15 at halftime and try to make an awesome comeback.”

Though Clovis went into the new year having lost two-thirds of its games so far, Villareal saw potential in her opponents Saturday night.

“Clovis is a great team,” she said. “They know how to take it to the hoop, they know how to find the holes of your defense and take it right to you. Coach Reed does an excellent job with them and he has them ready.”