Lady Longhorns defeat Tucumcari

LOGAN — Senior forward Harlie Roach scored 25 points to lead the Lady Longhorns to a solid 60-49 victory Saturday over U.S. 54 rival Tucumcari in a matchup of area girls basketball powers.

Roach, with teammate Karli Webb’s 14 points, dominated the inside game and went 5-for-5 in 3-point shooting. Logan (11-1) won its ninth in a row and has climbed to No. 1 in the Class 1A rankings by MaxPreps.com.

The Lady Rattlers (7-4), ranked fourth in Class 3A, have lost three of four. Jasmine Jones led Tucumcari with 16 points, while Kalani French and Aliyah Herrera each scored 11.

Except for early in the first quarter, Logan never trailed and seized a 16-point lead at the end of the third.

Logan coach Glynna Strand said she was “very pleased” with her team’s performance Saturday after a long Christmas break and a middling game during a victory against Santa Rosa the previous night.

“I was really worried about this game,” she said. “But I felt they stepped it up. I feel like this is the beginning. We haven’t reached anywhere that we can be.”

Strand said her team’s defense proved to be key. After seeing Tucumcari game film, the Lady Longhorns focused their attention on controlling French and guard Ashley Shipley, who scored seven points Saturday.

“We play a lot of help defense, but I told the girls to not pull off to help against those two,” Strand said. “We knew we had to stop them.”

About the only problem Logan experienced was a wobbly 7-for-14 in free-throw shooting. Tucumcari went 17-for-20 from the foul line.

Tucumcari coach Gary Hittson said he was discouraged with many aspects of his team’s play.

“We were tight,” he said. “I don’t know if we were putting undue pressure on ourselves. We weren’t comfortable shooting the basketball. And our defense was horrible. We stood flat-footed. And we didn’t rebound.”

Hittson also saw something else from his team in the second half that troubled him.

“We started bickering among ourselves,” he said. “We need to get that fixed. We won’t go very far if we keep bickering.”

Logan raced to a 15-4 lead early in the second period. Tucumcari rallied with a 15-4 run to tie it at 19 midway through the quarter.

But the Lady Longhorns responded with an 8-1 run of their own for a 27-20 lead just before intermission.

In the third period, the Lady Rattlers trailed just 38-30, but the Lady Longhorns scored eight unanswered points to take control. Tucumcari came no closer than eight points after that.

Tucumcari 80, East Mountain 13

Tucumcari held an overmatched East Mountain team scoreless in the second and third quarters during an 80-13 victory Friday at the Snake Pit.

Shipley, playing barely half the game, led all scorers with 23 points, while Herrera added 17.

The Lady Rattlers buried 11 3-point shots. Nine Tucumcari players scored in a game where coach Hittson emptied his bench early against the Timberwolves.

“Games like that you try to work on stuff on offense,” Hittson said. “But sometimes you can’t because the girls want to go, go, go. When you get fastbreaks all the time, it’s hard to work on your offense.”

East Mountain fell to 1-7.

Logan 70, Santa Rosa 33

The Lady Longhorns took control early during a 70-33 victory Friday at Santa Rosa.

Webb scored 16 points to lead Logan, and Roach added 14 as their team led the Lady Lions 19-7 in the first quarter and 36-18 at halftime.

Despite the victory, Strand said her team wasn’t sharp.

“We’re not in top form,” she said. “It was our first game back after that Christmas break, and we weren’t as fluid as we normally are.”

Santa Rosa fell to 4-6 overall.