Lady Cats give Hobbs a run before fading late in loss

CLOVIS – There was no lack of effort by Clovis High's girls on Friday night.

The Lady Wildcats, 61-14 losers at Hobbs two weeks earlier, went toe-to-toe with the Lady Eagles for more than a half on Friday night at Rock Staubus Gym. In the end, though, they ran out of steam and Hobbs pulled away to a 73-42 victory.

No question the Lady Eagles (20-3, 3-1 district), two-time defending Class 5A state runnersup, were the better team. Still, CHS (17-6, 1-3) hung around until the middle of the third quarter, when Hobbs went on a 16-4 run to turn an eight-point game into a 56-36 lead early in the fourth.

"We played hard; we got after them," Lady Cats coach Jeff Reed said. "But we'd fight our butts off to get a turnover, and then we'd give it right back. The turnovers (23 for the game) just killed us."

Five players reached double digits for the Lady Eagles, led by sophomore guard Nakia Mojica with four 3-pointers and 16 points. She hit two 3s in the opening segment, the latter capping an 11-0 run for a 14-3 lead.

The Lady Cats then pulled to 17-15 with a 10-3 surge of their own. Until the game-breaking charge by Hobbs, the Lady Eagles would pull ahead a bit and the Lady Cats responded in kind.

Senior forward Shalanda Lefevre's 3-point play made it 28-23 with 6:46 left in the third, but that's when Hobbs began to take off.

"Clovis did a great job," Hobbs coach Joe Carpenter said. "Their crowd helped get them into it. I understand why they've won 17 games.

"I don't know why they played so poorly at Hobbs, but they didn't play poorly tonight."

Junior guard Zarai Lewis, held to eight points in the first meeting, finished with 15 in this one for the Lady Cats, but no one else could muster more than seven.

"We challenged them (his players) at halftime," Carpenter said. "I thought we played a little bit out of control and rushed things in the first half."

Clovis has two district and regular-season games remaining – Tuesday at Carlsbad in a makeup, and Friday at Roswell High.

Reed said there are things to play for as the season winds down.

"I'm glad the girls showed up tonight and gave us a shot," he said. "We've got to keep believing, because the fun part of the season (postseason) is coming."

Carlsbad 35, Clovis 27 (Tuesday) – In an odd game, the Lady Cats went scoreless in the first quarter, then held the Cavegirls to one point for most of the second quarter in slowly building a four-point advantage.

They were up 9-7 at the half, but Carlsbad – which scored only one field goal in the opening 16 minutes – suddenly came alive with a 17-7 run in the third quarter to take control. Senior forward Mariana Sepulveda scored 12 of her game-high 20 points in that period for the Cavegirls (22-2, 4-0), who extended their winning streak to 12 on Friday with a homecourt win over Roswell High.

"It's almost impossible to come back against a team like that," Reed said of the Cavegirls' deliberate offensive style and suffocating defense. "We didn't make the good shots that we had. We just made too many mistakes."

Junior post Kailyn Jefferson scored 10 points for Clovis, but spent a large part of the night on the bench in foul trouble. Clovis had a 9-8 edge in field goals, but Carlsbad went 13-for-18 from foul line while the Lady Cats were 8-of-9.