As 2019 ends and 2020 enters the horizon, the Clovis Cougars boys basketball team was looking to end the year on a high note in the Clovis Elks Classic, the annual tournament that the team hosts.
However, a second half controlled by Roosevelt High ensured that would not happen as the Cougars narrowly dropped the fifth-place game against the Rough Riders, 70-69.
The Cougars started the game playing as a team with its proverbial hair on fire, displaying a scrappy defense that lunged into passing lanes to force turnovers and easy baskets in transition.
Guard Diego Ceyala, as he did for most of the game for Clovis, provided a needed spark for the offense, scoring four of the team’s 15 points while dishing the ball to the likes of Tyrell Lopez and Cal Stilson for open three-pointers. Ceyala finished the contest with a game-high 23 points.
But Roosevelt did not cower nor relent. The Rough Riders, after falling behind 8-4 after three minutes, found their rhythm offensively to seize control and rattle off 16 of the game’s next 23 points to take a 20-15 lead going to the second quarter.
Roosevelt’s Qiant Myers led the Rough Riders in scoring with 15, with eight coming in the second quarter alone. Myers hit two threes in the period, helping push the team’s lead to as many as eight before the Cougars were able to mount any sort of momentum.
Ceyala did his utmost to keep the Cougars within striking distance, converting two buckets plus fouls to help the team get within one. But as much as they scrapped, the Cougars couldn’t get over the last hump to take the lead and Roosevelt entered the halftime locker room with a 39-36 advantage.
“I was happy to be down only three, I really was,” Cougars coach Jonathan Heinz said. “I didn’t think we shot it very well. I think we took good shots, I just think we took quick shots.”
Roosevelt started the second half the aggressor, going on a 6-0 run before Clovis could get its first points to seize a 45-36 lead. The Rough Riders would eventually push the lead to as many as 15 before the Cougars narrowed it down to 55-45 with eight minutes left in the game.
Stilson and Ceyala reemerged in the fourth again to get the Cougars back into the game, including a three by Ceyala to cut the score to 64-61 with Roosevelt leading, just under three minutes left in the contest.
A three-pointer by Stilson with 2:30 left gave the Cougars their first lead at 65-64, but it was what happened later in the quarter that had the team unable to overcome.
Cougars sophomore guard Ashlan Morris, with a chance to seal the game, dribbled the ball off of his own leg, and the ball was grabbed by the Rough Riders.
Senior forward Nico Thomas knocked down two monumental free throws to give the Rough Riders the two last points they needed to survive.
But, Heinz said he was happy with the way the team battled back from a double-digit deficit and almost walk away with the victory.
“We climbed all the way back and our guys were tough enough to do it, gritty enough to do it,” he said. “We just came up one play short.”
Clovis now sits with a record of 10-6 as the team prepares for TRAC play. The Cougars open up league play at Central Jan. 10.