Clovis extends streak with win at Mayfield

LAS CRUCES — Trailing the whole game, Clovis High’s girls found a way to extend their winning streak late on Saturday.

Sophomore Ashlee Pierson hit the front end of a two-shot foul with three seconds left, capping a fourth-quarter rally that lifted the Lady Wildcats past Mayfield 46-45.

The Lady Cats (9-3) overcame a six-point halftime deficit and a nine-point hole in the second half to extend their winning streak to five games.

The also avenged an earlier loss to Mayfield (10-3) in the Mel Otero Classie at Rio Rancho, and snapped the Trojans’ five-game winning streak.

“We trailed the whole game until late, but we never let it get out of hand,” Lady Cats coach Jeff Reed said. “This was a huge win for our (postseason) resume. People will look at our record and say, ‘Oh, they lost to Mayfield,’ but then they’ll see that we won at Mayfield.”

Junior post Antiesha Brown scored 14 points for Clovis while senior forward Leia Willis added 10. Mayfield’s leading scorers were senior forward Justina Adams and sophomore guard Elena Holguin, each with 10 points.

Both teams were coming off three-game tournament title runs earlier in the week. Reed said he didn’t think the Lady Cats would be able to press Mayfield the whole game, but said he employed pressure in the final stanza and it was effective.

He wasn’t surprised to see his team pull this one out.

“We’d hung around long enough, and that’s what we had to do,” he said. “We had some people in foul trouble (earlier), but we were able to keep (the margin) the five, six, seven-point range.”

Senior Brittany Johnson tied the game 43-43 on a 3-point play about midway through the fourth quarter. Mayfield pulled ahead again, but the Lady Cats tied it and then got the ball back on a Trojans travel with about 30 seconds left.

Reed used two timeouts as the clock worked inside 10 seconds. Pierson was bumped as she caught an inbounds pass with three seconds to go, making the first shot and missing the second.

Mayfield rebounded the missed second shot, but an outlet pass near midcourt was intercepted by Johnson as time expired.

Clovis is on the road again on Tuesday with a 5:30 p.m. (MST)  tipoff at Texas power Canyon.