By J.T. Keith
Artesia Daily Press
jtkeith@elritomedia.com

It was Orange Out night at the Bulldog Pit last Friday with Artesia High School fans decked out in school colors to support the basketball Bulldogs in their final home of the season. The support didn’t help initially as Artesia trailed Lovington 24-19 at halftime.

But Artesia junior guard Charlie Campbell scored 15 of his game-high 26 points in the third quarter and the Bulldogs surged to a 57-42 victory over the Wildcats.

Artesia coach Michael Mondragon said Lovington packed the defense to guard against the Bulldogs’ height in the first half. He also said his team had open shots but missed.

Mondragon credited Campbell for drawing a charge in the third quarter to help turn the game around. On the offensive end of the floor, Mondragon said, one of Campbell’s best assets is his ability to get into the lane and find teammates to finish at the rim.

Defensive intensity was one key to the Bulldogs’ turnaround in the second half. Artesia (16-7 overall, 4-0 district) held Lovington to six points in the third quarter, outscoring the Wildcats by 11 to take a 36-30 lead.

“We’ve been playing well in the second half all year,” Mondragon said. “We finally started scoring and seeing the ball going into the hoop. We started guarding, and defense generated offense, and we were able to hit some big shots and pull away.”

After taking the lead in the third quarter, the Bulldogs came to life on a monster dunk by 6-foot-8 Clay Kincaid, who threw the ball down so hard he was assessed a technical and given a standing ovation by the home crowd.

“I’m okay with the technical foul (Kincaid) picked up,” Mondragon said. I have been telling him all year long that I want him to be nasty … When he got that dunk, he got excited and yelled a little. He set the tone that, ‘Hey, we’re here!’ An excellent way for him to respond, like I know he can.”

Guard Braylon Vega and power forward Trent Egeland each scored nine points for the Bulldogs.

Artesia (17-7, 5-0 District 4-4A defeated Portales (11-13, 1-4 District 4-4A) Tuesday night 58-42 in a road contest.

The final road contest is at second-place Goddard (10-14, 2-3 district) at 7 p.m. Friday.

JT Keith can be reached at jtkeith@elritomedia.com.