Lady Rattlers' defense leads to win over Texico

The Tucumcari girls basketball team didn't turn in its best performance against regional rival Texico, but it was good enough for a 37-24 victory during the Lady Rattlers' home opener last week.

The Lady Rattlers used their press defense early to frustrate the Wolverines, giving Tucumcari an 11-0 lead late in the first period.

Texico (2-3) rallied to close Tucumcari's lead to five early in the fourth quarter, but Caylee Benavidez scored six of her eight points in the period to keep the Wolverines at bay.

Kyla Lopez and Alexus Lafferty also scored eight points to share the team lead.

The Lady Rattlers battled through foul trouble and missed shots from point-blank range and the free-throw line.

Tucumcari coach Patrick Benavidez said he thought his team still was a bit weary from three games in three days during the season-opening Lady Lion Classic tournament in Santa Rosa.

"Defensively, we still were solid, though we were reaching in too much from being tired and overaggressive," he said. "We were just a step behind. We saw that (Texico) didn't have that great of guards, and we got overanxious."

"We kept battling and made shots when we needed it. We missed a ton of layups, and we didn't shoot that good from the free-throw line.

"But we'll take the win. It's always good to beat Texico."

Texico coach Jaylyn Cook said her team was missing two guards against Tucumcari - senior Catelyn Breshears due to a broken hand and another because of illness.

"We're hurting for a point guard right now," Cook said. "I was really proud of our defensive effort. The previous weekend, I thought our defense was terrible. We worked on it yesterday, and I thought they got a lot better."

Cook acknowledged Tucumcari's press bothered her team early in the game but added the Lady Rattlers also deserved credit on offense.

"They have some really good shooters. We knew we had to try to limit their shots," she said. "They do a great job rebounding, too.

"We didn't handle the pressure real well early and made us struggle a little bit; part of that was because we have a different lineup right now. We finally got settled down."

Robertson 61, Tucumcari 26

Facing the No. 1-ranked team and defending state champion in Class 3A, Tucumcari suffered its first loss of the season with a 61-26 defeat at Robertson in Las Vegas.

The Cardinals (3-0) took a double-digit lead in the first quarter and led 51-19 after three periods.

"Robertson was very intense defensively, which caused us to rush our shots and our passes," coach Benavidez said. "We got in some early foul trouble but continued to play hard and together.

"We came out of the game with a lot of bumps and bruises, but we will regroup and continue to work on adjusting to the speed of the game."

Lopez led the Lady Rattlers (5-1) with eight points, and Alexus Lafferty added seven.

Postponed

A non-district game set for Friday against Bosque was postponed to illness within the Lady Bobcats program. It was rescheduled to Feb. 8.