Clovis girls top Roswell for No. 3

ROSWELL — Clovis’ girls basketball team knew the stakes.

The Lady Wildcats needed to beat Roswell on the road Friday to avoid making another two-hour trek there just four days later. And they came through, pulling away to win 39-24, which earned them a first-round home game in the District 4-5A tournament on Tuesday.

The Lady Wildcats’ first-round opponent? The very same Roswell team they defeated on Friday night.

“I was glad to get this win so we didn’t have to play at Roswell Tuesday,” Clovis head coach Jeff Reed said. “I would’ve hated to have to turn around and come back here. I’m glad we get to play at home one more time, then go from there, see what happens.”

Clovis scored sparingly on Friday, never tallying more than 13 points in any quarter. They were up just 7-4 after one period, 17-12 at halftime.

“We had tons of chances in the first half and we were lucky to have that five-point lead at halftime,” Reed said. “I told (the Clovis players) we needed to come out in the second half and put them away. And we did a good job.

“Defensively, we did a fantastic job of shutting them down.”

The Lady Wildcats allowed just three Roswell points in the third quarter, and wound up allowing the same amount of second-half points as they had in the first half (12). And that helped cancel out their offensive struggles.

“We were 14-of-31 (45 percent) from the free-throw line, missed a lot of shots in the paint. Same old story,” Reed said. “But defensively we did a good job of shutting them down, especially on their home floor.”

Antanishwa Molett was the lone Wildcat to score in double figures, notching 12 points that tied Roswell’s Cheyenne Martinez for the game-high.

Clovis (9-17 overall, 2-4 district) now looks to kick-start a postseason run with a home victory on Tuesday.

“Hopefully we can put something together, beat Roswell first,” Reed said. “It’s going to be tough going on the road (after Tuesday), but you never know.”