Clovis guard Amanda Romero puts up a shot in traffic in the first half of Tuesday's game against Carlsbad. Clovis won its second District 4-5A game, 54-28 over the Cavegirls.

Clovis guard Katherine Cordova looks for room on the baseline against Carlsbad's Britni Jo Smith. Cordova had eight points in Clovis' 54-28 win.

Even without a stellar night on offense, Clovis had no trouble taking the driver’s seat in District 4-5A.

Antiesha Brown scored a game-high 19 points, and the Lady Wildcats never trailed in a 54-28 win over Carlsbad Tuesday night at Rock Staubus Gym.

Senior guard Ashlee Pierson added 15 points, but contributed most with her job defensively on Carlsbad point guard Taylor Edmondson, who was coming off a 27-point performance last weekend against Artesia.

Pierson was to guard Edmondson and help out on Carlsbad post Shannon Neimeier. But when Clovis found out Neimeier was sick and didn’t make the trip to Rock Staubus, she could focus on Edmondson.

“When we saw her on film, she was the main scorer,” said Pierson, who held Edmondson to two points on 1-of-3 shooting. “I was focused on her not scoring.

“I thought we did better (defensively) than most games, but we can improve.”

Clovis did more than enough defensively to offset its shooting woes, holding the Cavegirls (14-10, 1-1 District 4-5A) to 11-of-37 shooting to go with 27 turnovers.

It helped Clovis (18-4, 2-0) keep a solid lead throughout despite 3-of-19 shooting from behind the arc.

“If we hit one or two of those, it breaks things open,” Clovis coach Jeff Reed said, “then Carlsbad rushes things and it helps us out a lot.”

Instead, Clovis had to be patient and settle for a 23-13 first half lead after scoring the game’s first eight points. After the half, it was a slow buildup to a 20-point cushion against a shorthanded Carlsbad squad.

John Lee Zumbrun said having three regulars out, including Neimeier, did hurt, but having them would have only held down Clovis’ margin of victory.

“Our plan was to try and attack them,” Zumbrun said. “They put a lot of pressure on the ball and we wore down.

“I was proud of our effort in the first half. Second half, coach Reed did a good job of mixing up his coverage.”

Britni Jo Smith scored nine points to lead the Cavegirls.

Katharine Cordova added eight points for Clovis, which travels to Roswell High on Friday for a non-district contest.