Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Tucumcari defenders Alexis Ramirez (left), Izabela Reid and July Lafferty surround a New Mexico Military Institute ball handler during a district game Feb. 15 at the Snake Pit.
The Tucumcari girls basketball team secured one more home game for this week's district tournament by downing winless New Mexico Military Institute 53-31 on Feb. 15.
Second-seeded Tucumcari (11-10, 2-2) was scheduled to host the first-round game Monday against NMMI again, then travel to top seed Dexter at 6 p.m. Thursday for the district tournament championship and an automatic berth to the Class 3A state tournament. (Monday's game was after the Quay County Sun's deadline.)
July Lafferty led a balanced Lady Rattlers' attack with 13 points, while Alexus Lafferty added 12 and Kyla Samaniego 11.
Tucumcari coach Patrick Benavidez said his team did mostly what it sought to accomplish against NMMI, which had a size advantage but struggled to score in long stretches.
"We really worked on pushing the ball up the floor, and they did a really good job of that the whole night," he said. "We wanted to get as much rotation (of players) as we could, keep fresh legs in."
Benavidez said he was encouraged by what he's seen recently from freshman July Lafferty and eighth-grader Samaniego.
"She's really coming into her own," he said of Lafferty. "She's gotten used to the speed of the game. She's starting to step out of her shell and adapt to the game."
Speaking of Samaniego, he said: "She's the same way; she was a little nervous in the beginning of the year. These girls have played together a lot and I know what they're capable of. They just had to get used to the speed of the game at a higher level. She's getting more confidence. That's really, really exciting.
"That's what we really need right now. That's really going to help in this part of the season," he said.
Alahana Picos scored 12 points to lead the Lady Colts (0-10, 0-3).
Tucumcari led 15-9 after one quarter but poured it on after that, leading by as many as 30 points in the fourth quarter.
Before the game, Tucumcari honored its winter-sports seniors, including Illiana Reid, Izabela Reid and Elena Gutierrez of the Lady Rattlers. Other seniors feted were Andrew Henderson-Clark, Nate Griego, Dominick Jasper and Ricardo Martinez of boys basketball; Nathaniel Aragon and Reyes Garcia of the wrestling program; and Madison Dysart and Angela Holbrook as basketball managers.
