On Tuesday, the Lovington Wildcats faced the Clovis Wildcats in a battle between two of the state's top teams. Lovington fell 67-55 to Clovis. It was the first time this season that Lovington let down their fans at home.
Despite the loss, Lovington had strong showings from Elizabeth Buendia, who scored 22 points along with two steals, and Ashelynn Borunda, who scored ten points along with six steals and five rebounds. Buendia hasn't dropped below two steals for three straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Erlin Salcido, who scored four points along with seven rebounds and two steals.
Zarai Lewis was her usual excellent self, scoring 31 points along with five rebounds and three steals for Clovis. That makes it three consecutive games in which Lewis has scored at least a third of Clovis' points. Another player making a difference was Kailyn Jefferson, who scored 14 points.
Lovington's defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 11-4. As for Clovis, they pushed their record up to 11-3 with that win, which was their sixth straight on the road.
Lovington and Ruidoso will face off at 4:30 p.m. on January 12th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Ruidoso will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps New Mexico Rankings (they are ranked 95th, while Lovington is ranked 25th). As for Clovis, they will be playing at home against Espanola Valley at 5:00 p.m. on Friday.
