Lady Cats to rely on seniors

With an experience core to build around, veteran Clovis High girls basketball coach Jeff Reed is hoping the Lady Wildcats can reach heights they haven’t made in almost a decade.

“We’ve got a good group of seniors, and we’ve got our two leading scorers back,” Reed said as the team prepared for its Tuesday season opener at Rio Rancho Cleveland. “I’m excited about having the opportunity to do some things we haven’t been able to do in a while.”

Meantime, the CHS boys open their 2023-24 slate on Friday night at Hereford under second-year coach Josh Mattox.

Girls – Led by Danni Williams, CHS posted an astounding 111-10 record from 2011-15, with a Class 5A championship in 2013 and state semifinal appearances in each of her other three years. After a down stretch, the Lady Cats are 38-20 over the past two seasons, including 20-9 (2-4 District 4-5A) in 2022-23.

Living up to the standards set by Williams, who went on to play college ball at Texas A&M and Texas before continuing her career in Europe, would be a lot to ask, of course. Reed’s hope is his team can get a top-8 seed and a first-round state tournament home game, with the possibility of advancing to at least the quarterfinals at The Pit in Albuquerque for the first time since 2015.

He says the Lady Cats are more talented than last year’s edition.

“I think this year’s team is more athletic and quicker,” said Reed, a 1992 CHS graduate. “I’m looking forward to playing more the way I’d like to play. Last year we had a good group, but we weren’t as quick.”

Senior guard Zarai Lewis (14.7 ppg, 6.1 rpg last season) and senior post Kailyn Jefferson (8.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg) are the team’s main threats. Other projected starters are senior guards Aspen Ulibarri and Mackenzie Roche and junior guard Amanda De La Rosa.

Reed, entering his 16th year at the helm, said he hopes to be able to start out eight deep, with freshman guard Gianna Cordova, sophomore guard Brynn Petner and senior post Angelina Armijo, who is eligible after transferring last year from Muleshoe, providing depth.

He said he liked what he saw during the team’s summer season.

“Overall, we had a great summer,” Reed said. “If that’s a prelude to anything, I think we can have a successful year.”

Hobbs, which won the 5A state title in March after back-to-back runnerup finishes, “is loaded” this year, according to Reed, but he hopes the Lady Cats can at least challenge Carlsbad behind the Lady Eagles.

“I think we can be a better team than last year,” he said. “It just depends on how things come together.

“Our goal is to get back to The Pit in Albuquerque, and I think we can do that.”

Boys – The Wildcats (11-16, 0-6 district) were on track for a winning season until they hit district play, dropping all six of those games, then beating Roswell High in the first game of the district tournament before losing to Hobbs in the semifinals.

Mattox said his squad should be improved this season behind seniors Marvin Cox, Champ Gooden and J.J. Jones, all of whom stand 6-foot-3 or taller.

Gooden led the team with 11 points a game, while the 6-7 Cox averaged 8.6 ppg and Jones 5.3. Cox (7.4) and Gooden (6.5) also topped the team in rebounding.

“I think we’ve made improvements in a lot of different areas,” Mattox said. “We’re going to be deep, and we’ve got a lot of good players in the program (coming through the lower levels). We’ve got long, athletic wings, and we’ve got more depth with our big men.”

Senior guard Manny Gutierrez and junior guard Kalil Torres-Pierre also saw extensive duty a year ago, and Mattox believes his squad will be able to go 10 deep.

“We’ve got a second unit that could all probably be starters,” he said.

Tryouts earlier this week produced 77 candidates for the varsity, junior varsity and “C” team squads, Mattox said.

“I think we’re in a position right now to be able to reload year-to-year,” he said.

What are keys to success?

“I think the biggest factor is us,” Mattox said. “We’ve got a lot of talent, we can shoot the ball and we’ll be in your face on defense. We have to make sure we stay together as a team.”

One of the things Mattox set out to do was to toughen the team’s schedule. The Cats have added Class 5A foes in Organ Mountain, Alamogordo, La Cueva and Atrisco Heritage to the slate.

They’re also playing Fort Sumner, but don’t be fooled – the Foxes return a number of key players who went 29-2 last year en route to the Class 1A state title, and they knocked off several 4A and 5A opponents along the way.

Hobbs and Carlsbad have dominated the district in recent campaigns, but Mattox won’t sell his team short.

“I like our odds,” he said. “If we continue to do things the right way and work hard, we’ll put ourselves in position to have success in our district.”