Cleveland girls clobber Cibola 62-29

Cleveland High’s Hayden Ayers (40) looks primed to take an errant pass to her head in the Cougars’ lair the evening of Feb. 1, a 62-29 Storm victory. (Herron photo)

ALBUQUERQUE – To be successful in basketball, as well as in most sports, the secret to being successful and making it to the postseason is defending your home field or court and winning at least half your games on the road.

The Cleveland girls won twice last week, and each time it was a convincing victory.

Cleveland 62, Cibola 29: The last-place Cougars (2-18, 0-4 in District 1-5A) never led in this Feb. 1 meeting, as the Storm (11-10, 2-1) opened the game on a 16-4 lead, helped along by eight first-quarter turnovers.

It was 16-6 at the end of the first quarter and 35-18 at halftime, when leading scorer Kindyll Sandoval had all 18 of her points and teammate Savannah Madueno had accounted for nine of her 14.

The feisty Cleveland defense limited the Cougars to two quarters of six points and another of five in the rout, in which the Storm had a double-digit lead over the game’s final 26 minutes.

“We kinda got slow out of the gate again; that happened with us at Atrisco the other night, then we finally kinda settled down and got into it,” coach Susan Kubala said. “This gave us an opportunity to get some people in, to get some extra minutes, who haven’t got minutes very much lately, and hopefully to get the rust off of them.

“We did execute at times pretty well, and defensively we did play well,” she added. “You know me: I’m a perfectionist. We want to play at a high level, and we have a high standard.”

Cleveland 49, Atrisco Heritage Academy 41: On Jan. 30 in the Thunderdome, the Storm got 21 from Madueno and 15 from Jaslene Big Crow in coasting to a win.

Although the Storm led 27-13 at intermission, the Jaguars made a run at CHS in the second half, which they took by a 28-22 count.

Storm warnings: The Storm improved to 11-0 all-time vs. AHA, with the next meeting set for Feb. 16 at Atrisco Heritage Academy.

… Cleveland entertains Rio Rancho Wednesday (Feb. 7) at 7 p.m. It’ll be a battle for second place in District 1-5A at the midpoint of the district slate.