Home
News
Sports
Video
Obituaries
Classifieds
Just TV
Class 1A
No. 10 Cimarron (13-13) at No. 7 Dora (16-11)
6 p.m. Friday
• State titles: Cimarron (3) 2006, 2007, 2009. Dora (2) 1975, 1992
• Overview: After a slow start, the Rams have played well of late, winning six of their last nine games — all three losses in that span were to district champ and No. 3 seed Des Moines. ... Lacy Harris, a 5-7 senior G who played sparingly on Cimarron’s 2009 state title team, is the focal point of her team’s offense. “She brings the ball down court, can post up and shoots the ball well,” Dora coach Caleb King said. “The team goes through her.” ... Cimarron has won three state titles since 2006. “They’re used to winning,” King said. ... Kelli Merrick, a 6-2 senior, averages 18.7 points, 12.4 rebounds and 4.3 blocks a game for the Coyotes, who reached the state quarterfinals last year. ... Dora shoots 37 percent from 3-point range, but lost its best shooter when senior Jessica Fierro tore an ACL in the district tournament. She led the team with 36 3s. Sophomore Jasi Roberts is second with 25. “We’re kind of peaking right now,” King said. “We’ve had a lot of girls step into their roles and gain confidence in themselves.”
• What’s next: The winner between No. 2 Tatum and No. 15 Logan in the state quarterfinals in Albuquerque.
— Rick White
No. 13 Springer (16-11) at No. 4 Melrose (17-10) 6 p.m. Friday
• Overview: The Lady Buffs last won a state title in 1984 and last made it to the state tournament in 2000. … Melrose is 2-10 against Texico (0-3), Fort Sumner (1-3), Tatum (0-2) and Elida (1-2), and 15-0 against everyone else. That includes a 59-50 win over Des Moines, the No. 3 seed in 1A, at home in late December. “I really believe we’ve played the toughest schedule (in 1A),” second-year coach Toby Bostwick said. “We’ve tried to do that for a reason.” … Melrose is young, with only one senior on the roster in 5-6 forward Liz Green, but the Lady Buffs lost freshman guard Teryn Tate last weekend when she suffered a torn ACL while competing in goat-tying during a rodeo at Eastern New Mexico University. “All in all, our big picture hasn’t changed,” said Bostwick, hoping the loss of Tate serves to pull his team closer together. “It certainly hurts to lose Teryn, but sometimes things like this can turn our for the best.” … Sisters Cara Barnard, a 5-6 sophomore guard, and Caley Barnard, a 5-10 eighth-grade forward-guard, have led the Lady Buffs much of the season, but others have picked up a fair amount of the scoring slack lately. … Bostwick noted that in Springer’s 61-55 home win over Logan in early February, 5-4 senior guard Autumn Ebell converted six 3-point shots.
• What’s next: The winner gets either No. 12 Hagerman or fifth-seeded Cliff in a quarterfinal game on Tuesday at Bernalillo.
— Dave Wagner
Class 2A
No. 16 Cuba (16-11) at No. 1 Texico (24-2) 6 p.m. Friday
• Overview: Texico is trying to win its fourth 2A title in the last five years, and second in a row. … The Cooper twins, Jordyn and Jaylyn, a pair of 5-foot-10 junior guards, have led Texico most of the time this season. … The Lady Wolverines’ only losses were to Class 5A El Paso Coronado (70-36) in the first round of Clovis’ Plateau Wireless Classic and to Fort Sumner (39-36) in the EPAC tournament finals. Texico has won 13 in a row, only one — a 56-55 victory at Class 1A top seed Fort Sumner — closer than 11 points. … Veteran Texico coach Keith Durham said he knows little about the Lady Rams. “I haven’t concentrated on them for one second,” he said. “In fact, in Monday’s practice we reviewed several defensive concepts because there was some slippage there, Tuesday we shot the ball as much as we could and (Wednesday and Thursday were) more normal practices.” … If nothing else, the Lady Rams appear to have some scoring ability with 21 games of 50 or more points, including three games in the low 80s.
• What’s next: The winner gets either ninth-seeded Magdalena or No. 8 Mesa Vista, Cuba’s District 7-2A rival, in a 6:30 p.m. quarterfinal on Tuesday at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho.
— Dave Wagner
