Rams survive rally, top Clovis

CLOVIS — Friday’s Portales-Clovis girls basketball game was like an episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘Homeland’ — lots of action and excitement, unpredictability aplenty before Portales stole the scene in the game’s final act, winning 53-44.

Friday’s episode was filmed on location at Rock Staubus Gymnasium, with the Lady Wildcats starring first and leading early in the second quarter, the Lady Rams grabbing top billing by appearing to run away with it by halftime, then a strong third quarter from Clovis that kept audience members guessing.

Ultimately, it was Portales’ show. And the victory goes to — the Lady Rams, who improved to 12-6.

“I thought it was a game of runs,” Portales head coach Wade Fraze said. “They would have strong runs and then we would. We would go through stretches where I felt like we did things uncharacteristic — we had seven turnovers in the third quarter. And a lot of it was just us not handling the pressure; it’s not something that we’re not normally able to do, but we weren’t tonight.”

“In that second period if we would’ve fought like we did in the third period we wouldn’t have got down by so much at halftime, and have to exert so much energy in that third period,” Clovis head coach Jeff Reed said. “I don’t know where we faded to or what we did in the second period, but we just totally forgot there was a basketball game going on.”

Clovis did carry an 11-9 lead into that second period, led 13-12 early in it. But a steal by Portales’ Kinzie Davis turned out to be the spark for a 14-0 Lady Rams run. After her steal, Davis alertly passed to teammate Marisela Garcia, who scored to lift Portales into a 14-13 lead.

That was followed by a turnaround set shot from Davis, a three-point play completed at the foul line by Riley Shillings, an Adrianna Garcia jump shot, and a three-point play finished at the line by Kylyie Paden, all amounting to a 24-13 Portales lead at the break.

A nice second quarter for Portales, not so much for Clovis. The Lady Wildcats had scored just two points in that eight-minute span.

“I told the girls at halftime, ‘It’s not Xs and Os; it comes down to heart and head right now,’” Reed recalled. “And I said, ‘We’ll see what you guys are made of in the third period; you guys can come out and fight and try to scrape and scrap, whatever, claw your way back into it on your home floor and have a chance, or you could lay down and die and get your butt kicked.’”

Things didn’t initially improve for Clovis in the third. A steal and layup by Teagan Faust opened the quarter’s scoring and increased the Lady Rams’ advantage to 26-13.

It was still a 13-point game, 30-17, when Clovis began its march along the comeback trail. A running one-hander by Hailey Griego, a pair of Danielle Acuna foul shots, and a one-hander by Aydan Everett, whittled the Lady Wildcats’ deficit to 30-23.

An Adrianna Garcia putback quelled Clovis’ momentum temporarily, but the Lady ’Cats then went back at it, closing to within 32-29 thanks to a Hanna Nussbaumer follow-up shot, a driving shot Everett punched in off glass, and two more free throws from Acuna.

After a pair of Paden foul shots, an Everett layup brought Clovis within three again, 34-31, which was the score at the third quarter’s end.

“I was proud of them,” Reed said. “They fought, they scraped, they got back into it in that third period.”

Within the first 30 seconds of the fourth, Nussbaumer sank two free throws that narrowed Portales’ lead to 34-33, but a left-corner three from Taris Rippee gave the Lady Rams a four-point edge.

Clovis, however, then scored six straight — on an inside bank shot by Nussbaumer, a running one-hander from Griego that tied the game, and an Alandra Romero basket that came off a drive along the right baseline — giving Clovis a 39-37 lead with 4:28 left in the fourth quarter.

25 seconds later, Marisela Garcia was at the line for Portales, shooting a one-and-one. And though Garcia’s attempt wouldn’t go, Paden snared the offensive rebound, quickly scored the game-tying basket while still in the air, and was fouled with 4:01 left in the fourth quarter. Paden hit the free throw to hand Portales a 40-39 edge.

Clovis’ ensuing possession was ended by a Paden steal, and she drove for a layup to stretch the Rams’ lead to three. A pair of Romero free throws brought Clovis within one as 3:31 remained, but Portales then iced it from the foul line over the next few minutes, scoring seven in a row — on two free throws by Faust, a free throw by Rippee, two foul shots by Shillings, and then two more from Faust — that had the Lady Rams up 49-41. By that time there were just 24.5 seconds left, and Portales was on its way to victory.

The Rams had surged back ahead to get a win after letting a big lead slip away. The Wildcats had played well in the first, third and part of the fourth quarters, but too disjointed to avoid a loss.

What didn’t waver was the area rivals’ respect for each other.

“Clovis, I’ve been telling people all year they’re dangerous, they’re a good team,” Fraze said. “They’ve got good pieces; Nussbaumer’s hard to handle. They’ve got good guards that can shoot it. They’re a good team.”

“Portales is tough; give credit to Portales, they played hard,” Reed said. “They had multiple girls that were able to handle the ball and score and do things that they needed to do.”