On Friday, the La Cueva Bears faced the Clovis Wildcats in a battle between two of the state's top teams. La Cueva came out on top against Clovis by a score of 51-41. The win was nothing new for La Cueva as they're now sitting on four straight.
It was another big night for Eva Love, who scored 18 points along with seven rebounds and four steals. That makes it three consecutive games in which she has scored at least 25% of La Cueva's points. Antonya "Toni" Lucero was another key contributor, scoring eight points.
When it comes to explaining why Clovis lost, one person who can't be blamed is Zarai Lewis. Despite the final result, she scored 19 points along with seven rebounds. The matchup was Lewis' tenth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Kailyn Jefferson, who scored eight points along with five rebounds.
Clovis struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only three offensive rebounds. That's the fewest offensive rebounds they've managed all season.
La Cueva pushed their record up to 6-2 with that victory, which was their third straight on the road. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 61.0 points per game. As for Clovis, their defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 8-2.
Both teams are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. La Cueva will finish 2023 at home by hosting Kirtland Central at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. Kirtland Central has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 527 points over their last eight contests. Clovis and Santa Fe will face off at 2:30 p.m. on December 29th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Santa Fe 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 77th, while Clovis is ranked fifth).
