The Belen Eagles were the 48-44 winner over the Lovington Wildcats when they last played one another back in December of 2022, but their luck changed this time around. Belen was the victim of a tough 65-43 loss at the hands of Lovington on Friday. Belen has now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.
Despite the defeat, Belen saw an underclassman step up: Danilynn Bob scored 12 points. Jaelynn Bob was another key contributor, scoring seven points.
Lovington's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Elizabeth Buendia led the charge by scoring 24 points along with four steals. The match was Buendia's seventh in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Aubrey Aranda, who scored 12 points along with seven rebounds and five steals.
Belen bumped their record down to 3-2 with that loss, which was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season. As for Lovington, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season.
Both teams will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Belen will challenge Socorro at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Socorro is coming into the match on a four-game losing streak. Lovington and Eunice will face off at 6:30 p.m. on December 12th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Eunice 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 65th, while Lovington is ranked 15th).
