HOBBS – The Hobbs boys’ basketball team’s chances at the post season took a major hit Tuesday night as the Eagles dropped their second straight home district game. After losing to Roswell last week, the Eagles fell to Carlsbad Tuesday night, losing 58-51.
“This hurts. It nearly knocks us out,” Hobbs coach Shelby Reeves said. “We have to win every game and hope that we can get in. It hurts.”
The last time Hobbs lost to Carlsbad in Tasker Arena was Feb. 19, 2016 when the Eagles fell 63-46.
“Anytime you come to Tasker Arena – I asked my seniors if they had ever won in Tasker and they said no,” Carlsbad coach John Zumbrun said. “Now they have.”
After three minutes of play, the Eagles trailed 8-2. They battled back, cutting the deficit to 10-9 with 2:08 left in the first quarter, but Carlsbad got a pair of buckets to close the quarter with a 14-9 lead.
The second half belonged to the Eagles as Hobbs outscored Carlsbad 17-9 thanks to the hot shooting of Jalen Goar. The Eagle junior hit three of his four treys in the second quarter and scored 11 of his 19 points in the quarter.
After Carlsbad pushed its lead to 16-9, Goar hit a jumper and followed up with a trey, cutting the deficit to 16-14. He then sank a pair of treys to knot the game at 19-all and then giving Hobbs a 22-19 lead, its first lead of the game.
At the break, Hobbs had turned a five-point deficit into a three-point lead.
But Carlsbad wasn’t backing down and Goar suddenly couldn’t hit a shot. The Cavemen outscored Hobbs 17-15 in the second half, cutting Hobbs; lead to just one point, 41-40, heading into the final eight minutes of play.
“They wanted it more than us,” Reeves said. “(Carlsbad) got loose balls, they got rebounds, they got everything. You look at our guys eyes, it looked like they never played before in their life.”
With 5:32 left on the clock, Hobbs led by three, 45-42. But the Eagles couldn’t hold it. Carlsbad rallied with a pair of layups and a trey and suddenly Hobbs was down 49-45. The Eagles would knot the game at 49-all and 51-all, but they would never lead again as Carlsbad closed out the game on a 7-0 run.
“We had to settle down and focus a little bit and make some shots,” Zumbrun said. “We hit a couple of big ones down the stretch.”
Goar was the only Eagle to finish with double figure scoring as he led all scorers with 19 points. Aaron Mora finished with nine points and nine rebounds. Coming in off the bench, Ronnie Ross had nine points and Isaiah Lewis chipped in eight. Caurtrey Morgan grabbed six rebounds for the Eagles.
Carlsbad had two players in double figures. Andrew Miller led the Cavemen with 18 points while Devin McWright chipped in 12.
With the loss, Hobbs falls to 5-2 on the season and 1-2 in District 4-5A. The Eagles will start the second half of district play on Friday when they travel to Roswell for a 7 p.m. start against the Coyotes. Carlsbad improves to 4-3 on the season and 1-2 in district. The Cavemen will host Clovis on Friday.
