Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Tucumcari girls basketball player Kalani French receives a kiss from her father, Bo Lopez, during a ceremony Saturday to honor Tucumcari's senior winter-sports athletes and their parents at the Snake Pit.
The Tucumcari girls basketball team scored 17 unanswered points in the second quarter to coast to an unexpectedly easy 86-50 victory Saturday over state-ranked Tularosa in the Lady Rattlers' district opener.
Tucumcari's Aliyah Herrera scored a season-high 30 points on a combination of five 3-point shots and layups to finish fastbreaks and steals.
Jasmine Jones and Kalani French each scored 18 points and Ashley Shipley added 15 for the Lady Rattlers (17-4), ranked third in Class 3A by MaxPreps.com.
Tucumcari torched the Wildcats with nine 3-pointers and outscored them 27-5 in the second period to seize control.
Tularosa, ranked sixth in Class 3A, fell to 15-7 overall and 1-1 in Class 3A, District 4. Shacie Marr led the Wildcats with 14 points.
The Wildcats, thanks to four 3-pointers, briefly led and kept the game competitive during the first quarter. They trailed 21-16 at the end of the period.
Tucumcari then showed it could make 3-pointers, too. Jones, French, Shipley and Herrera each sank shots from behind the circle during the second period and led by 30 just before halftime.
"We were right there, and it blew up on us in the second quarter," Tularosa coach Johnny Hudson said. "A lot of it was because we're not getting to their 3-point shooters. They've got three to four girls there that can flat fill it up if you don't get a hand in their face."
Though the Lady Rattlers scored a lot of points in that crucial quarter, coach Gary Hittson noted his team has become more rugged defensively since boys basketball coach John Span let some of his players scrimmage against the girls. That began right before the Pecos game - another contest the Lady Rattlers unexpectedly won easily.
"We've gone from an offensive-minded ballclub to a defensive-minded ballclub since we've gone against the boys," Hittson said. "It's really helped us a lot. Our defense started locking (Tularosa) down, and we just turned it up and played."
Tularosa tried to control Tucumcari's 3-point shooting after that period, but that opened more opportunities for inside buckets by Jones and French. The Lady Rattlers maintained a lead of 30-plus points for the rest of the game.
Hudson said his team would have to play better defense when it plays Tucumcari again Feb. 22.
"When a girl catches the ball, we gotta be there," he said. "If we can do that, we can limit the good looks they get. If they get good looks, they can make those shots."
Before the game, Tucumcari honored its winter-sports senior athletes and their parents, including the girls basketball team's French, Herrera, Lenora Trujillo and Melanie Jones.
Also recognized were the boys basketball team's Jaxon Arguello, Casey Carter, Josh Chavez, Matthew Lopez, David Lowry and Gerardo Villa-Vargas and the wrestling team's Rod Dunlap, Kaleb Hayes and Ricky Montano.
