Cats, Lady Cats absorb setbacks

RIO RANCHO — Clovis High’s girls couldn’t take advantage of a quick start on Saturday.

Leading 16-5 at the quarter, the Lady Wildcats gradually surrendered the advantage, going down to West Mesa 50-39 in the fifth-place game of the Rio Rancho Invite.

Six players contributed points in the opening stanza, no one with more than four. But the Lady Mustangs pulled within three points by halftime, then overhauled CHS by outscoring them 19-4 in the final stanza.

“We had a good first quarter,” Lady Cats coach Jeff Reed said. “They (West Mesa) really started out slow; they missed a lot of shots and they weren’t playing that hard.

“We just didn’t bury them when we had the chance.”

Clovis (3-3) actually rebuilt a 10-point lead during the third quarter, but West Mesa (2-2) made it close by period’s end.

“In the fourth quarter, we just succumbed to their pressure,” Reed said. “Not handling their press really killed us.”

Junior guard Destiny Jackson converted four 3-pointers and finished with 19 points for West Mesa, while fellow junior guard Cece Thrasher added 18 points and the team’s other two 3s.

Only junior guard Zarai Lewis reached double digits for the Lady Cats, collecting 17 points. A day after going 26-for-32 from the foul line in a consolation semifinal win over Santa Fe High, Clovis was able to convert only 8-of-21 charity tosses against the Lady Mustangs.

In an all-Las Cruces battle, Organ Mountain defeated Las Cruces High 55-47 to capture the tourney championship.

Clovis is slated to return to action on Friday at Cibola.

Hope trounces CHS boys — CHS first-year boys coach Josh Mattox was ready to go back to the drawing board after Saturday’s 77-45 loss to Hope Christian in the fifth-place game of Albuquerque Academy’s Joe Armijo Invitational.

The Wildcats (3-2), who opened the season with a pair of lopsided home wins, held their own in the first and third quarters against the Huskies (4-1), but were dominated in the other two stanzas.

“We need to rebound the ball better, but we have a lot of attitude things that need to be fixed before we worry about basketball,” Mattox said.

Hope outscored the Cats by two in the first quarter and by one in the third, but crushed them by a combined 44-15 in the other two stanzas.

Six-foot-3 senior forward Jett Wyckoff poured in 29 points for the Huskies, who also got double-digit scoring from 6-5 freshman forward Brayden Giron (12) and senior guard Christian Schermerhorn (11).

“We just really couldn’t get going offensively,” Mattox said. “Their guy (Wyckoff) got hot; we didn’t really have a matchup for him. He was too big (6-foot-3) for our guards and to quick for our bigs.”

The Cats went 17-of-25 from the free throw line to just 5-of-6 for Hope, but six players combined to give the Huskies an 8-2 margin in 3-point field goals.”

No one reached double figures for CHS. Junior forward Champ Gooden scored a team-high nine points, while four others had seven.

The Cats were to return to action on Tuesday, hosting Portales at Rock Staubus Gym. Clovis is slated to play at Artesia on Thursday and at Espanola Valley on Saturday.