Espanola Valley surprised by visiting 5A Clovis

The next stop for a Clovis boys basketball team that is having a dismal season is at Santa Fe High in non-district play Saturday night.

Now 2-11 overall, 5A Clovis hit the road Thursday night and surprised Espanola Valley, 48-44, to drop the stunned Sundevils to 11-5. It was a tight tussle, with Espanola up 14-11 after one quarter and 28-21 at halftime. But in the third quarter, the visitors picked up their defense to outscore the Sundevils, 13-3, and then 27-16 in the final eight minutes.

Clovis had lost nine in a row and two of its last three starts. It was the third-straight setback for Espanola.

In the St. Michael’s boys 3-day tournament, it was Albuquerque Bosque School (7-1) turning back Crownpoint, 72-65, and Crownpoint falling to 8-4. There are more games scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but Laguna-Acuma has dropped out of the tourney.

The Pecos boys evened their record at 5-5by avenging a previous loss to Escalante with Thursday’s 67-55 victory behind a game-high 24 points from junior guard Malik Berrios, and Escalante is now 7-4.

The Panthers were up 15-14 after the opening quarter, but Escalante was on top 30-23 at the intermission. Then came a big 27-point third quarter by Pecos that brought a 50-43 advantage after three quarters, and it maintained the lead through the final eight minutes.

Monte del Sol lost its sixth of seven starts and fourth in a row when it lost, 66-46, to Albuquerque Cottonwood Classics, which advanced to 3-6 following the non-district contest.

Then there was Santa Fe Indian School winning handily over Capitan, 84-52, to up its mark to 5-8 and drop Capitan to 5-7 in the non-district contest.

Santa Fe Prep was no match for Taos as the Tigers trumped 72-36, to win its ninth of a dozen starts and the Griffins fell to 4-3 in the non-district game.

In another non-district contest, Robertson advanced to 7-5 by upending Tucumcari, 66-54, and the Rattlers lost for the eighth time in 11 starts..