Rams lose nail-biter to fall to 0-2 on season

link JOSHUA LUCERO: Staff photo

Portales guard Junior Ramirez takes a shot and knocks over a St. Michael’s high school defender Saturday night during the Rams game against the St. Michael’s Horsemen at Greyhound Arena.

Down 50-49 in a back and forth game, the Portales Rams had 10 seconds to make something happen on offense.

Visiting St. Michael’s made it happen on defense instead, holding Portales without a shot to survive the fourth and final game of the ENMU Tipoff Saturday by that margin at Greyhound Arena.

Andrew Griego scored 18 points to lead the Horsemen (2-0), who went back to Santa Fe with the win despite a 25-point night from Ram junior Bronte Staugaard.

“We just made a few turnovers at the end of the game and didn’t communicate,” Staugaard said “Next time we play them we’ll be ready 100 percent.”

The Rams (0-2) tied the game at 41-41 on the first possession of the fourth on Jeremie Karngbaye’s turnaround jumper in the paint.

With around two minutes left, and the Horsemen up 48-47 on a Griego free throw, Staugaard gave the Rams a brief lead when he hit a layup off a Horsemen turnover.

But St. Michael’s took the lead for good with 1:40 to play on Cameron Conway’s short jumper. After a go-ahead basket by Staugaard was nullified by an offensive foul, the Rams got second life when Conway missed the front end of a one-and-one.

Portales ran plays on a pair of timeouts in the final seconds. Portales couldn’t get the shot off after the first, and the Horsemen forced a turnover on the inbounds of the second.

Despite the loss Portales coach Rickie McBroom was proud of his players. “I’m real proud of our kids,” McBroom said.

"The practices we had before this game, I saw a tremendous mount of improvement, but the game came down to lack of execution at the end. I thought they executed better throughout the game, than in our first game, but we still have to get better.”

The Rams were down 32-26 at the half, but turned up the volume on their 2-3 zone defense in the third quarter holding the Horsemen to just two points in the fist five minutes of the third and to just 18 total points in the half.

“We added some things to our defense in the second half and the kids did a great job of executing it,” McBroom said. “I think our effort was a lot better in the second half defensively as well.”

John Young finished second on the team in points with six despite foul trouble throughout the night.

The Rams went 9-of-16 from the line, compared to 19-of-24 for St. Michael’s. Luke Archuleta finished with nine for the Horsemen.

Portales is on the road Tuesday at Goddard.