Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Jeremie Karngbaye goes up over the defense to score for Portales during the opening minutes of Wednesday's 65-56 win over Roswell High at the Ram Athletic Center. With the victory, the Rams improved to 7-0 for the season.
PORTALES — In its toughest test of the season, the Portales High boys basketball team turned in a clutch second-half performance to stay undefeated on Wednesday, beating Roswell High 65-56 at the Ram Athletic Center.
Led by another standout performance from senior Jeremy Karngbaye with 27 points, the Rams (7-0) needed a big second half to win, and they got it. The Coyotes (7-3), led by Tarren Burrola with 25 points, were actually on top 36-31 at halftime, but managed only 20 points over the final two quarters while the Rams tallied 34.
The turning point came with about six minutes left in the game, when Portales' patented 1-3-1 hybrid zone caused the Coyotes to turn the ball over several times, leading to fast-break scores for the Rams and putting the game out of reach.
"It's something we've been working and it takes a lot of time," Portales coach Rickie McBroom said of the defense. "So when our kids came from football, it was just real difficult to put into on the floor and we just continued to work on it.
"It's gotten better and better. It's a real unique defense."
The zone has helped Portales close out its last three games, all of which were within a couple of scores at halftime but ended with Portales wins. One weakness of that type of zone can be the corner 3-point shot, something the Coyotes were doing incredibly well the entire game.
Fortunately for the Rams, the points they garnered from turnovers forced the Coyotes to start to rush towards the end of the contest, taking some ill-advised shots.
"That little zone trap they ran in the second half, the 1-3-1, gave us some trouble," Coyotes coach Britt Cooper said. "We didn't adjust to it very well, settled for some shots and missed some shots we should've hit.
"They are a solid ballclub, (the) big kid inside is hard to handle and their guards are solid. They're as good as they've been in a while, and we didn't get the tempo where we wanted it and they just outplayed us the second half."
The final key factor to the Rams' win was their poise from the free throw line. Portales went 15-for-21 from the charity stripe, with Karngbaye leading the team with an 10-for-11 performance.
Portales sank nine freebies in the final period.
