Clovis Christian, Grady get split

CLOVIS — If you’re a Grady/San Jon/House basketball fan, you probably had mixed emotions about Thursday night’s doubleheader at Clovis Christian.

If you’re a Clovis Christian basketball fan, you probably had mixed emotions about Thursday night’s doubleheader at home.

The Clovis Christian girls opened Thursday’s twin bill with a 53-47 victory over Grady/San Jon/House. And Grady/San Jon/House’s boys then won the nightcap 77-65.

A mixed bag for both programs.

Next woman up

Clovis Christian’s girls basketball team, like a lot of teams in late January, has been dealing with injuries.

So, it’s next woman up for the Lady Eagles, who were able to rally from behind in Thursday’s second quarter, build a substantial lead in the second half, then hold on to beat Grady/San Jon/House by six.

“It was a big, big win for us,” Clovis Christian girls coach Kenny Duong said. “We were kind of on our toes a little bit because we have one of our starters out, and another just came back from injury.”

Freshman guard Sofia DeGroot was the Eagles starter missing from Thursday’s game. “She’s my starting shooting guard,” Duong said. “She broke her hand last week; she should be back in two or three weeks.”

The Clovis Christian player who made her return Thursday was junior forward and co-captain Makayla Robinson, who was thought to have possibly suffered a concussion in the recent Eastern Plains Athletic Conference tournament. It turned out to be a bruise, according to Duong, “but because of concussion protocol, she had to wait out 10 days,” he explained. “This was her first game back since EPAC.”

Robinson scored seven points Thursday, all coming in that second-and-third-quarter stretch when the Lady Eagles outscored Grady 31-18 and took control of the game.

With Robinson just back and DeGroot still recovering, Duong noted freshman guard Claire Fisher’s contributions to Thursday’s victory.

“We had one of our role players step up big time,” Duong said.

Fisher, though young and only 5-foot-1, played like a seasoned veteran, 10 feet tall. She knocked down six threes — at least one in each quarter and three in the third — and rang up a game-best 20 points overall.

“That’s definitely her career high, by far,” Duong said. “She was just shooting out of her mind.”

In fact, all of Fisher’s field goals were from three-point range. And in that third quarter when she hit three of them, she scored 11 of her 20 points.

Clovis Christian had improved to 11-7 by game’s end, but early on that 11th victory was no guarantee. Clovis Christian trailed 11-9 after one period before surging ahead in the second quarter by outscoring Grady/San Jon/House 13-9.

Still, the Lady Eagles’ lead was a precarious 22-17 at halftime.

They kept it up in the third quarter, and constructed a 40-29 lead by the end of that period. Though Grady had one last push in the fourth, Clovis Christian hung on to get the victory.

“We knew this one was going to be tough, especially because of our history with them,” Duong said. “They made it close at the end. A little too close for my liking, but we closed it out.”

Pulling away

Thursday’s boys game was a close, up-tempo contest for much of the way.

It was tied twice — 15-all and 18-all — late in the first quarter. Then twice more — 23-all and 25-all — early in the second.

Grady’s Chisum Rush hit from beyond the arc — notching three of his whopping game-high 37 — and gave his team a 28-25 lead. And though Grady’s lead swelled to 36-29 in the second quarter, it had been trimmed to 38-34 less than a minute before halftime.

And with about 30 seconds to go, Dawson Teune hit a short jumper for Clovis Christian, bringing the Eagles within 38-36 by the break.

Early in the third quarter on a possession created by a Teune steal, Tyler Lingnau scored inside for Clovis Christian and tied the game at 38.

Another three by Chisum Rush put Grady up, as it turned out, for good, though it took a little while for his team to get any kind of decent separation. Though Rush soon followed that trey with a bank shot that made it a 43-38 game, Clovis Christian’s Noah Gershon was fouled attempting a three-pointer that missed. He went to the line and sank 2-of-3, bringing the Eagles within 43-40 with 5:26 still to go in the third quarter.

Clovis Christian had chances to draw closer or even tie, but couldn’t capitalize, and soon Grady took advantage of the Eagles’ drought. Grady’s Dustin Bryant collected a steal that began a possession he ended himself with a short turnaround jumper, and with 3:35 left in the third, Chisum Rush sank a pair of free throws that stretched Grady’s lead to 47-40.

A Teune jumper quickly followed by a steal and layup from Lingnau brought Clovis Christian within 47-44, but the Eagles just couldn’t quite fly over the hump.

It was still just a modest difference, 50-46, when Grady finally started to build a more sizable lead. A straightaway three and then a two-point running bank shot from Chisum Rush made it a 55-46 game. And with just 6.5 seconds left in the third quarter, Zane Rush hit 1-of-2 from the line to push the game into double-digit territory for the first time.

Grady opened the fourth quarter with three straight points, and kept an arm’s length advantage over the Eagles the rest of the way, leading by as many as 14 but never by less than eight.

“I thought we applied pretty good pressure with our press in the second half,” Grady boys coach Jonathan Langan said after his team improved to 8-6. “We did a real good job of contesting the shooters, and they didn’t shoot it as well as they did in the first quarter and the first half. Once we started defending their shooters, and rebounding, and pushing in transition, we actually got a pretty good lead and ended up finishing pretty strong.”