Lady Cats eliminated by No. 7 seed Cruces

LAS CRUCES – Clovis High’s girls got off to a good start on Friday night, but it all fell apart in the second half.

Second-seeded Las Cruces High used strong pressure defense to force numerous turnovers and outscored the Lady Wildcats 33-15 over the final two stanzas to register a 51-33 win in a Class 5A first-round tournament game.

Clovis (20-9), seeded 10th, led 14-7 at the quarter and stayed even with the Lady Bulldawgs 18-18 at the intermission. But Cruces (21-8) went off for four 3-pointers, three by senior guard Lila Ashida, and outscored the Lady Cats 21-10 in the third stanza.

“We started out great,” Clovis coach Jeff Reed said. “We got the ball down the floor and got layups. Then all of a sudden, Las Cruces ramped up the pressure and we fell apart.”

The 5-foot-8 Ashida finished the night with 22 points, including five 3s, after going scoreless in the opening frame.

“She was the one person we knew we couldn’t leave (open),” Reed said.

Reed said the Lady Cats simply couldn’t get enough going on offense. Junior guard Zarai Lewis led the team with nine points.

“We did a pretty good job of holding them down for a while,” he said. “I felt like we had a great game plan. It all just unraveled when we didn’t handle the pressure.”

Senior guard Emma Christiano also edged into double digits for the Lady Bulldawgs with 10 points. She and Ashida are the only seniors who see significant minutes.

“That’ll hurt them a lot next year (when they graduate),” Reed said.

The Lady Bulldogs are slated to take on second-seeded Farmington (25-3) in the quarterfinal round on Tuesday at The Pit in Albuquerque. The Scorpions dominated West Mesa 54-35 in their opening-round tilt on Friday.