Rams tune up for district title games

STAFF WRITER

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After going undefeated through the regular season district games, the time has finally come for both the Rams and Lady Rams to host their respective District 4-4A championship games this weekend. The Lady Rams will play Ruidoso today and the Rams figure to also play against Ruidoso on Saturday, with both games scheduled for 7 p.m. starts at the Ram Athletic Center.

The Lady Rams (21-3) have been on a tear this season and are currently on a 10-game winning streak.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Portales junior Sky Marianito, center, knocks the ball loose from sophomore Lindsay Blakey during Thursday’s practice. The Lady Rams host Ruidoso tonight for the District 4-4A championship.

In their two previous games against Ruidoso, Portales outscored the Lady Warriors by a combined 131-45 with senior Kambrey Blakey scoring 14 and 22 points, respectively. Junior Sky Marianito scored 15 in the first game, while sophomore Zamorye Cox had 12 points in the second contest.

Blakey sat out Portales’ previous game last Friday against East Mountain with a minor injury. Coach Wade Fraze isn’t sure if Blakey will actually play because she’s still recovering.

“She’ll suit up,” Fraze said. “We’re just taking it day by day because I want her as close to 100 percent as possible.”

The absence of Blakey against the Lady Timberwolves certainly didn’t hurt as PHS cruised to a 57-8 win.

Ruidoso (14-12) advanced to the championship game by also routing East Mountain, posting a 53-17 victory on Wednesday.

Still, Fraze isn’t assuming this will be an easy game and has had his team prepare for Ruidoso junior forward Lia Mosher.

“Mosher’s 6-(foot-)3 with a 6-5 wingspan,” Fraze said on Thursday. “We know that they’ve done pretty much the same thing consistently both times we’ve played them, so we will look for the same things the third time. That’s what we just prepared for in our scrimmage today.”

On the boys side, the semifinal game has been delayed until today. The game was to have been played on Thursday and was supposed to feature New Mexico Military traveling to Ruidoso, but on Thursday it was discovered that a NMMI basketball player was ineligible to play in the Colts’ victory over East Mountain on Tuesday.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Portales junior center Jeremie Karngbaye powers through Andrew Underbrink’s block attempt during Thursday’s practice. The Rams will host the District 4-4A championship game this Friday at 7 p.m.

No other details about the ineligibility are available as of now.

Because NMMI was forced to forfeit the game, East Mountain will travel to Ruidoso and play tonight. The Warriors (9-17) won both regular-season games against East Mountain (7-20) by a combined 22 points.

Although Portales coach Rickie McBroom has had his team practicing for both possible opponents, he’s assuming the Warriors will get another win over the Timberwolves.

“We’ve been working on a lot of man and zone offenses because NMMI is a man-oriented team and Ruidoso’s more of a zone defensive team, so we’ve been splitting it up evenly in practice,” McBroom said. “What we’re going to do (Saturday) is concentrate on zone. There’s still a ballgame to play, but the odds are Ruidoso’s going to win. Both (Ruidoso and East Mountain) run the zone so we’re focusing on that.”

Assistant head coach Randy McBroom added that the majority of this week’s practices have been more about the Rams (16-9) working on themselves, rather than preparing for a particular opponent.

“This has been a week for us to get better as a group,” Randy McBroom said. “We’ve been working really, really hard improving our game speed, improving our conditioning and improving our teamwork. Tomorrow we’ll put in some touches for Saturday but this week’s been about getting better every day.”