Cleveland girls’ season starts with home loss to Clovis

RIO RANCHO – Cleveland High School girls’ basketball coach Susan Kubala didn’t have much time to improve her team before its second game of the season, as the Storm face Española Valley Thursday at 2 p.m. in an opening round game of the Bobby Rodriguez Capital City Basketball Tournament in Santa Fe.

The Storm (0-1) dropped their opening game Tuesday in the Thunderdome, to the extent of a scoreless second quarter, and a 57-41 loss to Clovis. It’s the fourth full season in a row, excluding the pandemic 2020-21 season, with the Wildcats and Storm facing each other in their opener.

Except for a brief 10-9 lead, the Storm trailed throughout the game.

After they went without a point in the second stanza, they trailed 22-10 at halftime and never got closer, despite some spirited late runs, than 11 points the rest of the way.

Clovis played tenaciously on defense, contributing to many of the Storm’s 23 turnovers. Cleveland also played well defensively, as the ’Cats turned the ball over 29 times.

The real difference-maker in the game was 5-foot, 9-inch Clovis senior guard Zarai Lewis, who rarely missed a shot and was a solid rebounder; she finished with a game-high 24 points, which included sinking her final six free throws attempts.

Lewis also scored eight points in the second quarter, when the Storm failed to light the scoreboard and missed four shots from 3-point range, after sinking two of them in the first period.

Kindyll Sandoval, after missing five treys in the first half, found her groove in the third period, when she connected on three 3s; she hit another in the fourth quarter, leading to her team-high 16 points.

Veteran Aubrey Jaramillo had two 3s in the game and finished with 9 points; four other players combined for 16 points.

By the time the Rodriguez tournament concludes, the Storm girls will have played four games in five days. Then after a game at Eldorado on Dec. 12, they’ve got three games in as many days, Dec. 14-16, at the Joe Armijo Classic at Albuquerque Academy.