Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
MORIARTY — Just call them the Cardiac Lady Buffs. And against larger schools, too.
Melrose’s girls improved to 6-0 for the season — including three wins against Class 4A and 5A opponents, by a grand total of four points — after erasing a six-point deficit with three minutes left for a 47-46 triumph over host Moriarty in the semifinals of the Bruce King Invitational.
Meantime, the Melrose boys stayed perfect at 5-0 with an 80-47 thumping of the Pintos to move into Saturday’s title tilt against Class 3A Las Vegas Robertson.
Junior Graci Odom made two free throws with three seconds left to lift the Lady Buffs to victory. Melrose was to face probably its stiffest challenge of the season so far in Saturday night’s finals against defending Class 4A champion and top-ranked Kirtland Central (7-0), which routed Bernalillo 67-28 in Friday’s other semifinal.
The Class 1A Lady Buffs defeated Class 4A Roswell Goddard 46-45 in Thursday’s quarterfinals, and they opened the campaign with a 44-42 win at Class 5A Manzano in Albuquerque on Nov. 22.
Senior Paityn Nicholson scored all 14 of her points for Melrose in the second half, while senior Isabelle Sena chipped in 11. Meantime, the Lady Pintos (4-2) got 27 points from senior Aneesa Chavez and 12 from sophomore Presley Edwards.
In the boys’ clash, the Buffaloes scored 49 points over the middle two stanzas to blow out the Pintos. Junior Dathan Yeary’s personal-best 23 points led four Buffs in double digits, while sophomores Brayden Eldridge and Cy Draper had 14 and 13, respectively, and junior Michael Cardonita scored 10.
No one reached double numbers for Moriarty (2-2), which was led by nine points from senior Herman Archibeque.
Clayton posts sweep over Grady — At Clayton, the Yellowjackets and Lady Jackets notched wins over Grady in what was to have been a weekend tournament, but instead resulted in just the two games on Friday night.
Clayton (6-1) won the boys matchup 61-38, breaking the game open with an 18-8 run in the second segment. Senior Rylan Ruf scored nine of his game-high 23 points for the Yellowjackets, while senior Cole Keeth and junior Jonoven Hidalgo finished with 13 apiece.
For the Bronchos (2-3), eighth-grader Zander Ciancio had 11 points and junior Zane Rush had nine.
In the girls’ clash, the Lady Jackets (5-1) got off to a 20-4 lead in the opening frame and won behind 21 points from senior Morgan Crisp — 15 in the first half — and 20 from junior Emerson Beiland, including two 3-pointers and 10 tallies in the initial canto.
For the Lady Bronchos (2-3), sophomore Juanita Rodriguez had a team-high seven points.
Bovina falls in semifinals — Lubbock-based All Saints Episcopal improved to 12-1 for the season by turning back Bovina 44-35 tin Friday’s championship semifinals of a tournament at Adrian, Texas. Junior Rohan Felton and senior Rowe Osborne led the Patriots with 12 points apiece while sophomore Anson Profitt added 10.
For Bovina (4-4), senior Ceasar Amaya tallied nine points and senior Darian DeLaRosa chipped in eight.
