Lady Rattlers win district tourney

The Tucumcari girls basketball team left no doubt Friday which was the top team in its district.

The top-seeded Lady Rattlers took an early double-digit lead and never trailed in their 59-33 home victory over second-seeded Ruidoso in the championship game of the District 3A-4 tournament.

Tucumcari's triumph followed a perfect 6-0 record in district play during the regular season. The Lady Rattlers earned a No. 5 seed in the Class 3A tournament and will host 12th-seeded Cuba on Friday. (See other story in this edition.)

Tucumcari (19-6) weathered a horrendous 14-for-37 performance from the free-throw line by using its smothering defense to frustrate second-seeded Ruidoso (11-16).

Led by July Lafferty's 10 steals, the Lady Warriors endured long stretches without a field goal.

On offense, Lady Rattlers also used a balanced scoring attack to keep their foes off-balance. Alexus Lafferty led her team with 15 points.

Patrick Benavidez, in his second season as Tucumcari's head coach after being an assistant under former head coach Gary Hittson (now an assistant for Rattlers boys basketball), rejoiced after he and his players cut down the nets following Friday's victory.

"It feel great," he said. "To run the table on the district and then finish off tonight with a district championship is just wonderful."

He turned emotional when reflecting on a 1-10 season just two years ago.

"This group of girls especially ..." he said, then turned away, his eyes filling with tears.

After a moment to compose himself, Benavidez picked up where he left off.

"Two years ago we were rebuilding," he said. "They're just a special group of kids. They worked hard. We talked about the previous teams. This is a continuation of what the other great teams started with Coach Hittson. We're just glad to get it back here and continue it on again."

Ruidoso coach Troy Schmidt, coming off a 51-39 win over Dexter the night before, said his team was flat the entire game Friday.

"We didn't get going at all," he said. "It seemed like we were tired. We had the game last night and a long trip, but everybody goes through that. I don't look for excuses."

Alexx Chavez led the Ruidoso with 13 points.

The Lady Rattlers stormed to an 8-0 lead as Ruidoso didn't score its first field goal until late in the first quarter.

"We changed up our press at the beginning," coach Benavidez said. "We went with a 2-2-1 instead of a 1-2-2 just to pressure the ball and make sure we rotate. The girls adapted to everything really well."

Tucumcari led 26-10 at halftime and 41-21 after three quarters.

The outcome never was in doubt, despite Tucumcari's foul-shooting woes and missing a bunch of layups. Benavidez said that aspect of Friday's game didn't surprise him.

"We knew it was going to be a physical game," he said. "We just had to make sure we protected ourselves because we have more to look forward to than just this game."

Accentuating that need for self-protection was when point guard and leading scorer Alexus Lafferty's knee buckled as she stopped suddenly to prepare for a shot midway through the second period. A collective gasp went up over the crowd, and Lafferty limped to the bench during a stoppage in play.

Lafferty came back into the game in the third quarter with no apparent ill effects and scored six more points in the second half. She said after the game her knee buckling initially frightened her, but it felt fine.

After the game, Benavidez was informed four of his players scored double digits. In addition to Lafferty's 15, Cambree Benavidez added 12, Caylee Benavidez 11 and Kyla Lopez 11. The news pleased him.

"That's really good," he said. "If we have four girls with at least 10 each, that's a lot of points."