Hawks stop Clovis girls again

CLOVIS - You again?

That was the theme of Friday's Volcano Vista-Clovis girls basketball game at Rock Staubus Gymnasium. After all, it was a mere 20 days earlier that the teams had met at the Rock for the championship game of Clovis' holiday basketball tournament.

Volcano Vista won that late-December game and Friday's, too, pulling away in the latter for a 62-34 rout of the Lady Wildcats. Different score, but not all that different in general.

"It was pretty much the same," Clovis head coach Jeff Reed said. "We knew we had to control and contain Nos. 15 (Jaelyn Bates) and 24 (Natalia Chavez). The last time we did a pretty good job against 24; she only had 12 points. This time she had 18. And last time 15 had 27; we held her to 17 (on Friday)."

Which makes 35 points Friday's total for the freshmen Bates and Chavez.

"We're starting to gel more as a team, getting in the mix together as far as the freshmen starting to jive a little bit better," Volcano Vista head coach Lisa Villareal said.

Bates, though, had just five in the first half before finding her groove in the second.

"It's not a secret anymore that Jaelyn Bates can put up points," Villareal said. "She's heavily guarded a lot of times now, so the other girls really have to step up their games, which they have."

Among Volcano's 'other girls' were freshman Savannah McGuire and sophomore Giannah Aragon, who chipped in with eight points each to augment the scoring of Bates and Chavez.

Volcano had a 14-6 lead by the end of the first quarter, and Bates - whose first-quarter scoring had consisted of just two free throws - nailed a three early in the second to make it an 11-point game.

Volcano had a 22-10 advantage late in the half, but seconds before the buzzer, Kaydee Weaver scored to make it a reasonable 22-12 difference at the break.

"We did a great job defensively in the first half," Reed said. "We held a very good scoring team to 22 points and held their best player to five points in that first half."

The third quarter, however, began similar to the second - with a three-pointer, this one buried by Chavez to give Volcano a 13-point lead.

Clovis answered right back with an Annabelle Martinez layup, but Bates answered on the other end, and it was back to 13 again.

Though Mikyla Harkley answered that with a layup to make it a 27-16 difference, Clovis was never that close again. The Lady Hawks reeled off eight straight points - a McGuire basket, a quick steal and layup from Bates, another Bates hoop, and a steal and layup from Chavez - to take a 35-16 lead.

Clovis showed it had some fight left when Cierra Jenkins hit a three, then poked the ball away on the other end. But Volcano Vista maintained possession after Jenkins' defensive play and completed it with a McGuire basket, increasing the Hawks' lead to 37-19.

Clovis trailed 43-27 by the end of the third quarter, and when Angelyn Aranda opened the fourth-quarter scoring with an inside basket, she had the Lady Hawks rolling into the final period that saw them outscore the Lady Wildcats 19-7.

"We've got to score points, at the end of the day," Reed said. "We had a lot of opportunities, we just didn't put it in the hole when we had to. ... So that was frustrating."