It’s been a while since Miles Watters and Clay Stout have coached against each other on a basketball court. Watters was the boys coach at Sudan and Stout the boys coach at Spade when the teams were Class 1A district rivals. Their teams played each other for two years in the late 1970s. They’ll meet again tonight when Watters’ Clovis High girls host Stout’s Portales squad in a 7 p.m. tipoff at Rock Staubus Gym. The two coaches have remained good friends over the years. Stout, who spent nine seasons as the girls coach at Sudan before helping Keith Durham’s Texico squad win the Class 2A state championship last year, is in his first season replacing longtime coach Brenda Gomez at Portales. “Clay and I go back a long ways,” Watters said. “We’re good friends, and we’ve talked a lot the last couple of weeks. “Clay’s going to try to out-execute you. They’re not going to make a whole lot of mistakes. They’ll defend you and they won’t give you easy looks.” The Lady Wildcats bring a 2-2 mark into the contest after winning one of three outings last weekend in a tournament at Abilene, Texas. Meantime, Portales (1-0) downed Carlsbad 49-37 on Nov. 27 in Stout’s Lady Rams debut. “He’s a great guy and a great coach,” Stout said of Watters. “It’s going to be a pleasure getting to coach against him again. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to compete against Miles.” Both teams are trying to find themselves after reaching state championship games last season — Clovis finishing second to Mayfield in Class 5A, and Portales taking second behind Hope Christian in Class 3A. “I think we’re going to be building all year long, just kind of figuring out who can play where,” Watters said of the Lady Cats. “Our guard play has to get more consistent as far as getting us into an offense, although I don’t think we’ll see the kind of pressure we saw (in Abilene) for a while.” Portales, which has played in every 3A championship game since 2001 and won four of them, has several of its mainstays to build around, including senior forward Bethany Self and junior guard Tara Johnson. Stout said he doesn’t worry about wins and losses, especially early, as much as getting better. “Clovis and Coach Watters will make us better,” he said. “These are the kind of games that are a win-win situation for us.” The Lady Rams meet on the other member of Clovis’ district, Hobbs, on the road on Tuesday. Both Clovis and the Lady Rams will play in a tournament next weekend in Rio Rancho. “This is a tough stretch, but I think this is what helps a team mature,” Stout said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge.”