Portales posts win over Texico

TEXICO — The Portales High boys basketball team had one full practice between winning the Class 4A state football championship on Dec. 3 and its first basketball game.

Suffice it to say, it hasn't mattered much. The Rams (4-0) have run roughshod through the early part of their scheduled and it continued on Saturday with a 71-56 victory over Texico.

Senior center Jeremie Karngbaye scored 17 points and senior guard Junior Ramirez added 15 - all coming on 3-pointers - as the Rams opened a 20-point halftime lead and never let the Wolverines (6-3) get within striking distance.

"We're pleased; this is the first time we've played back-to-back games," said Rams coach Rickie McBroom, whose team was coming off a 20-point win at home on Friday night over Muleshoe. "It shows our conditioning is really coming along."

Portales scored on its first three possessions, including a pair of 3-pointers, for an 8-0 lead and kept rolling into halftime, which ended with the margin at 36-16.

"I think we played much better in the second half," Wolverines coach Scott Karger said. "We made some adjustments at halftime, and the kids did a great job.

"We just gave up too much in the first half.

Portales finished the night with 11 3-pointers. The Wolverines were coming off a loss earlier in the week at Lubbock Christian in which they had been torched for 17 3s.

"I'm a lot more satisfied with what we did tonight," Karger said of his team's effort. The Wolverines got within 12 points a couple of times early in the final period, but it was just too big a hill to climb.

Junior Jace Wallace added a trio of 3-pointers and finished with 13 points for the Rams, while junior guard Braden Bridges chipped in 10.

"Texico's kids are always going to come at you," McBroom said. "We're just playing it possession by possession and trying to get better."

McBroom said that, with the 6-foot-4 Karngbaye patrolling the paint, the Rams are hard to defend for most opponents.

"If you try to stop Jeremie inside, we've got guys on the outside," McBroom said. "I feel like we're a real balanced team."

Junior guard Dalton Thatcher, who had just two points at halftime, finished with 19 for the Wolverines. Junior post Nathan Phipps had 16 and senior guard Braden Fraze scored 12.

Karger said he isn't concerned about the two recent losses, noting that the Class 3A Wolverines may not see many teams in Portales' category.

"It's about us getting better, and I think we did that tonight," he said. "Portales is good. They're going to be in the top two in 4A, you would think."

The Rams' next outing will be on Tuesday night at Clovis. Meantime, the Wolverines are idle until Dec. 28-30 when they host a holiday tournament.