CANYON, Texas — The Clovis High girls faced one of the best teams in Texas on Tuesday night. One bad quarter did them in.

Trailing 15-13 and playing for the last shot of the first quarter, the Lady Wildcats turned the ball over and Canyon scored as time was about to run out. Then the Lady Eagles held Clovis to one point in the second period and pulled away to a 55-34 victory.

“We ran into probably the best team we’ll see all year,” first-year CHS coach Jeff Reed said. “It’s hard to go against that level of competition; you can’t simulate that kind of defense in practice.

“But we can build from there and learn from it.”

Jordy Vessels scored 13 points and Emily Williams added 11 for Canyon (16-2), a traditional Class 3A power before moving up to Class 4A.

Eleven Canyon players contributed points.

Junior post Antiesha Brown led the Lady Cats (9-4) with 15 points. Clovis saw its five-game winning streak come to an end.

“The second quarter really did us in,” Reed said. “They really strapped on the defense, and we had lots of turnovers.

“Our defense was OK, but we didn’t have a lot of opportunities on offense because we turned it over too much.”

The outing was a much better one than last year, when the Lady Eagles cruised to a 63-18 win at Rock Staubus Gym.

“Hopefully, this can only make us better,” Reed said. “Some of the mistakes we made we’ve been able to get away with against other teams.”

The Lady Cats return to action against Clayton at 3 p.m. Friday and Hot Springs at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Portales Shootout.