Championship Celebration

The Hobbs girls’ basketball team won the District 3-6A Tournament championship. The Lady Eagles did so by beating Carlsbad for the third time this season, and sixth straight time overall. The Lady Eagles did it in front of their fans, on their home court, besting the Cavegirls 55-48 at Tasker Arena.

“It is another feather in the hat,” Hobbs coach Joe Carpenter said. “But it really doesn’t mean anything compared to the blue trophy and that is our ultimate goal.”

For Hobbs’ Kiara Knight, winning the district tournament championship for a second straight year was special.

“It is a good feeling,” Knight said. “This team is a special team. I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.”

The Lady Eagles (26-2) will find out where they are seeded in the NMAA state tournament tonight. The NMAA State Basketball Seeding and Selection Show will be broadcast live at www.KOB.com at 7 p.m.

Saturday afternoon, Hobbs never trailed.

In a game where Amaya Lewis had a hard time scoring, the Lady Eagles had several others step up and carry the load.

“I figured they were going to try to take away (Amaya) Lewis as much as possible,” Carpenter said. “They did that and it left other people wide open. Not open, but wide open.”

“We were expecting them to play hard. This was our third time playing them,” Knight added. “They tried to shut down a couple of our plays, so we have to mix it up sometimes.”

Amiah Smith gave the Lady Eagles a 3-0 lead to start the game and Knight made it 5-0 shortly after. With about two and a half minutes left in the first quarter, Smith and Knight had given Hobbs a 9-2 lead. By the end of the quarter the Lady Eagles led 13-6. All the scoring, except one free throw, came from Smith and Knight in the first quarter.

Hobbs and Carlsbad traded points in the second quarter. The Lady Eagles pushed their lead to 12 points with the help of a 7-0 run, but Carlsbad answered back, at the free throw line. By halftime, Hobbs led 25-18.

Lewis, who scored only one point in the first half, had five points in the second half. But even with the senior not a factor with her points, she had several assists, steals, and rebounds to help the Lady Eagles.

During the third quarter, Hobbs doubled up Carlsbad in the scoring column, scoring 16 points to the Cavegirls’ eight. With 4:45 left in the third the Lady Eagles had their largest lead of the game, 18-points. While Carlsbad would add a few baskets before the end of the quarter, Hobbs still led by 15 points at the start of the final eight minutes of play.

Carlsbad didn’t quit and the Cavegirls mounted a comeback in the fourth quarter.

“We got cold,” Carpenter said. “We missed a lot of threes and were giving (Carlsbad) opportunities to get back in it. They were missing wide open threes and they were scoring. It was a continuous thing.”

The Cavegirls opened the quarter with a 10-2 run, cutting the Lady Eagles’ lead to seven points. But Hobbs responded, pushing it back to 10. With 2:24 left on the clock, Hobbs still led by 10 points, 50-40.

Carlsbad cut Hobbs’ lead to five points with 1:20 play and four points with 39 seconds left, but that was it. The Cavegirls wouldn’t score again. While the visiting team outscored the home team 22-14, it didn’t change which team finished with the victory.

Nine of the Cavegirls 22 points in the fourth quarter came from the charity stripe. Carlsbad missed only one free throw in the fourth quarter.

“They are a good team and they get to the foul line,” Carpenter said. “They were getting the offensive glass and they outrebounded us in the fourth quarter. If anything, our defense and rebounding wasn’t there in the fourth quarter and that’s why (Carlsbad) got back in (it).”

Overall, Smith and Knight combined to hit six treys and score 32 points.

“We felt like we needed to shoot more and better to win this game,” Smith said. “And they left us wide open. We just wanted to help our team. By making (the threes), we were catching the lead and keeping out in front.”

Knight and Smith each had 16 points for the Lady Eagles. Ayanna Smith chipped in 10 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Mariah Jennings and MacKenzye Gibson also chipped in a few points.