The Texico Lady Wolverines hit a small bump in the road early, then settled in and advanced to the semifinals of the Plateau Holiday Classic.

Junior forward Katlin Luscombe scored 19 points — including the Lady Wolverines’ first 10 after they quickly fell behind 4-0 — and Texico notched a 40-27 first-round win over Gadsden Monday morning at Rock Staubus Gym.

The two-time defending Class 2A state champion Lady Wolverines (8-2), winners of eight in a row, now get host Clovis (6-3) in a 6 p.m. semifinal today. And they’re looking forward to it.

“We wanted to get to the next round,” said freshman post Jaylyn Cooper, who scored eight of her 10 points in the second quarter. “We wanted a chance to play Clovis.”

Once the Lady Wolverines figured out Gadsden’s pressure defense, they handled it with relative ease. Meantime, Texico’s sticky man-to-man defense caused all kinds of problems, and the Lady Panthers (3-7) went 12 minutes without a field goal after senior forward Jasmine Arias provided baskets on their first two possessions.

“Our defense is all about applying ball pressure,” first-year Texico coach Ryan Autrey said. “When we got that done today, we hurt them.

“Our guards did a good job of handling their press. We broke it two or three times and then they pulled out of it.”

Gadsden finished the game with 32 turnovers while Texico had 11, including just three in the first 22 minutes.

“We worked hard on defense,” Cooper said. “We just knew we couldn’t let them back in. That’s pretty much what we’re about.”

Arias scored 14 points for Gadsden, but picked up her third foul late in the opening quarter and sat out the rest of the half. The Lady Panthers pared a 14-point deficit to 31-24 with five minutes left before Texico pulled away for good.

Gadsden coach Evelyn Reyes said her team was unable to pick up the slack with Arias out.

“We had too many turnovers,” she said. “And they had a couple good shooters, and that hurt us.

“We have to have other kids step up. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”