Quarantine hampers Lady Rattlers

Playing without its chief ball-handler and top scorer, the Tucumcari girls basketball team fell to a talented Clayton squad 44-28 Thursday at the Snake Pit during Tucumcari's annual Homecoming night.

Junior guard Alexus Lafferty had been in close contract with a confirmed COVID-19 case last week, requiring her to quarantine for five days.

To make matters worse, freshman guard July Lafferty banged up her knee midway through the third quarter when it appeared the Lady Rattlers might make a run, and she had to be helped off the floor. She returned midway through the final period, but the Yellowjackets had fattened their led to 16 points by then.

Freshman Caylee Benavidez stepped into the point guard role and scored a team-high eight points. But the Lady Rattlers (9-7) struggled to score in long stretches.

"Whenever you're missing your point guard, you're changing your whole dynamics of the team - especially our team because we rely on Alexus so much," Tucumcari coach Patrick Benavidez said.

Morgan Crisp led Clayton (11-5) with 15 points.

The Yellowjackets started slowly, thanks in part to Tucumcari's strong defense.

"The score doesn't really show it, but they defended us really well," Clayton coach Clyde Sanchez said. "The intensity they brought was really good."

Tucumcari briefly took a 12-10 lead in the second period after 3-pointers by Benavidez and Elena Gutierrez. But Clayton went on a 16-1 run to close the half for a 26-13 lead.

Tucumcari made a brief run in the third quarter, boosted by offensive rebounds from sisters Illiana and Izabela Reid, who combined for eight points.

The Lady Rattlers rimmed out a shot late in period that would have cut Clayton's lead to seven, and Crisp answered with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give her team a 36-24 advantage.

"Our goal in the second half was to cut their lead in half," coach Benavidez said. "That could have been a turning point for us had we made that shot."

Tucumcari has a long break before it begins district play with a road game on Feb. 1 against Dexter.

"We've got a whole week and a half to get healthy," coach Benavidez said.

Tucumcari 45, Santa Rosa 43

July Lafferty scored after an offensive rebound with about 10 seconds remaining to lift Tucumcari to a 45-43 win Jan. 18 at Santa Rosa.

The Lady Rattlers forced a turnover in the final seconds to help preserve the victory, avenging a 42-37 loss at Santa Rosa on Jan. 7.

Alexus Lafferty led the Lady Rattlers with 18 points, and Caylee Benavidez added 12.

Coach Benavidez said it was a back-and-forth game that required his team to keep its composure.

"Coming into the game, the girls felt like we let the first meeting against the Lady Lions get away from us and felt like we could get them this time," he said.

"We knew that Santa Rosa feeds off their home crowd, and it's always a tough place to play and that we will need to make sure not to let that affect us. We played through Santa Rosa's intensity and kept the game within reach."

Santa Rosa fell to 8-7.