The Tucumcari Rattlers will look to defend their home court on Friday against the Dexter Demons at 5:30 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Tucumcari has six straight wins, Dexter has 11 straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.
On Tuesday, Tucumcari was able to grind out a solid win over Ruidoso, taking the game 63-51. Tucumcari pushed the score to 54-34 by the end of the third, a deficit Ruidoso cut but never quite recovered from.
Tucumcari relied on the efforts of Kyla Lopez, who almost dropped a double-double on 23 points and nine rebounds, and Caylee Benavidez, who scored 23 points along with six assists and five rebounds. Lopez has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last 19 times she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of July Lafferty, who almost dropped a double-double on nine points and 12 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Dexter came up short against New Mexico Military Institute on Tuesday and fell 33-20.
Tucumcari's victory was their ninth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 18-3. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 55.6 points per game. As for Dexter, they have not been sharp recently as the team has lost 13 of their last 14 matchups, which put a noticeable dent in their 3-20 record this season.
Everything came up roses for Tucumcari against Dexter in their previous matchup two weeks ago as the team secured a 50-20 victory. In that match, Tucumcari amassed a halftime lead of 41-7, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
