Rams dominate second half against Goddard

ROSWELL — Portales High boys coach Mark Gallegos wasn’t that worried at halftime, even with his team trailing by eight points.

Gallegos figured if the Rams could keep getting good shots and pick up their defense a little, the rest would take care of itself.

Portales (9-7) dominated the second half to the tune of 26-12 and rallied for a 40-34 victory over Roswell Goddard.

The Rams, who had trailed all night, took the lead with a 12-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters, then put the game away in the final minute with two free throws each by seniors Chris Kirchner and Chris Carter and a steal and layup by Carter.

“We got good looks at the basket in the first half, but we just missed them,” Gallegos said. “We said (at halftime) that the shots would fall, but we had to get some easy baskets off our press to cut down the lead.

“The kids did exactly what we asked them to do in the second half.”

Their run transformed a six-point deficit into a 31-25 lead with just over six minutes left. Goddard pulled to 33-31 on a layup by senior Doyle Baker with just over 3 1/2 minutes remaining, but missed a 3-point shot and turned the ball over twice to help let the Rams pull away.

Goddard scored only nine points in the half before hitting a 3-point shot as time expired.

Goddard’s zone caused the Rams some problems early. Gallegos said his team was shooting tentatively in the first half.

“We came out in the second half and decided we were just flat going to play,” he said. “The whole deal was they couldn’t set their defense in the second half because we scored off the press.”

Kirchner and Carter each finished with 10 points for Portales. Senior Cody Fouratt led the Rockets (4-11) with 10 points.

Portales 40, Roswell Goddard 34

Portales (9-7) — Cruz Ontiveros 0 0-0 0, Daniel Aranda 2 0-0 4, Chris Kirchner 3 4-5 10, Bo Gabriel 3 1-2 7, Trevor Ferguson 0 0-0 0, Chris Adkins 0 0-0 0, Daniel Boan 0 0-0 0, Chris Carter 3 3-4 10, Tyler Johnson 2 1-1 5, Jack Hale 2 0-0 4, Chris Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 9-12 40.

Roswell Goddard (4-11) — Josh Boggs 0 2-2 2, Josh Lucero 1 2-2 5, Cody Fouratt 4 0-2 10, Hernando Herrera 0 1-2 1, Jesus Baca 1 0-0 2, Stephen Vickers 2 0-0 6, Doyle Baker 4 0-0 8. Totals 12 5-8 34.

Portales 6 8 14 12 — 40

Roswell Goddard 7 15 3 9 — 34

3-pointers — Portales (1): Carter. Roswell Goddard (5): Fouratt 2, Vickers 2, Lucero. JV score — Portales 46, Roswell Goddard 39.