Lady Rattlers nab district title

The Tucumcari girls basketball team reeled off three victories last week, securing an undisputed regular-season district title and the No. 1 seed for this week's district tournament.

Earning early round byes, the Lady Rattlers (18-6 overall, 6-0 in District 3A-4) will play for the district tourney championship at 6 p.m. Friday at Rattler Gymnasium, aka The Snake Pit.

On Saturday, Tucumcari capped the regular season with a dominating 73-27 victory over Dexter in Tucumcari's rescheduled Homecoming game.

The Lady Rattlers stormed to leads of 22-9 in the first quarter and 40-11 at halftime.

"We knew coming in we would outmatch them," Tucumcari coach Patrick Benavidez said. "They couldn't handle our press, and we didn't even full-on press the whole time. We kinda played back, played man-to-man and worked on a few things for the postseason.

"Making some shots helps a lot, too."

Alexus Lafferty led Tucumcari made a lot of shots, scoring a game-high 28 points, including eight 3-pointers. Minutes after the game, she was named Homecoming queen, as voted by the student body.

Eighth-grader Cambree Benavidez came off the bench to score 14 points. July Lafferty, scoring more points as of late, added 13 points.

"Her confidence is just amazing and her all-round game, she's rebounding, she's passing, she's stealing the ball, she's scoring," coach Benavidez said of July. "We practice a lot of on following the shot and getting putback (baskets), and she does that a lot."

Dexter fell to 8-17, 1-5.

Benavidez said he was hopeful his team is peaking at good time.

"Right now, we're playing good basketball, and a lot of teams don't have an answer to our scoring runs," he said. "Our biggest problem lately has been foul trouble, which can change the whole aspect of the game. But the girls just play through it, make some runs and put it away."

Tucumcari 55, NMMI 37

Tucumcari didn't play its best against New Mexico Military Institute, but it was more than enough during a 55-37 home victory last Tuesday.

Caylee Benavidez scored 14 points to lead the Lady Rattlers, and teammates Kyla Lopez and July Lafferty each scored nine.

Tucumcari jumped to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter and added a 14-2 run in the first half to grab a 24-6 advantage.

The Lady Colts twice in the second half reduced gap to 10 points but came no closer. The Lady Rattlers outscored NMMI 15-8 in the final quarter to secure the victory.

"It was a hard game to prepare for mentally because we knew we were better than them," coach Benavidez said. "It was hard to get the intensity going. We got ourselves in foul trouble, but we played through it."

Nickole Mendez led the Lady Colts with 11 points.

NMMI fell to 2-10 overall and 0-5 in district play.

Tucumcari honored its seniors and their parents on Senior Night: Jade Duplantis and co-captain Alexus Lafferty.

Tucumcari 66, Ruidoso 39

The Lady Rattlers turned a somewhat close game into a blowout with a third-quarter surge during a 66-39 victory Friday at Ruidoso.

Tucumcari led 33-22 at intermission, then surged with a 20-7 outburst in the third quarter to turn it into a 53-29 advantage.

"That's something we've been focusing on after that Clayton game after we lost a 14-point lead," coach Benavidez said. "We wanted a solid third quarter where we didn't let them back in the game.

"These girls, they're learning the game so well, I'm not even having to tell them to go press; they just read it and they're communicating well on the floor. That's all them."

Alexus and July Lafferty each scored 19 points to lead the Lady Rattlers. Lopez added 14 points.

Tucumcari shot a season-best 19-for-22 from the free throw line.

Ruidoso fell to 10-15, 4-2.

Benavidez said he was glad to beat Ruidoso a second time to avoid a playoff to determine a top seed.

"That game was big," he said. "We didn't want another game (against Ruidoso) because you never know what's going to happen."