Portales pulls away from Artesia in second half

PORTALES — Shaking off the holiday rust, the Portales girls basketball team defeated Artesia Tuesday night in a frantic game, winning 56-29.

Between the two teams there were a total of 48 turnovers and 35 steals, making for a chaotic up and down game. Portales finished with 24 steals and 17 turnovers, while the Bulldogs were 11 and 31, respectively.

“We had nine turnovers at halftime which is way more than we should have,” Portales coach Wade Fraze said. “We were rushing things. I also tell them, ‘Be quick, but don’t hurry,’ and we were hurrying, which I think was the cause of the poor shooting percentage and the turnovers.”

In a close game during the first half, due to a very poor shooting by both teams, it took a full half of play for the Lady Rams (9-2) to settle down. Artesia (7-4) took advantage of the chaos on the court, keeping themselves in the game basically all the way through the third quarter.

It was in the fourth quarter that Portales really started to look sharp, scoring 20 points to simply distance themselves from the Bulldogs.

Leading that effort on both ends of the court was Zamorye Cox who finished with a game-high 14 points and 11 steals, recording a double-double.

“Well, she is the only returning varsity starter that we have, so that shows up a lot of times on the court, her experience, having been there,” said Fraze. “It helps to have that player that’s been in the mix before.”

Backing Cox up was Taylee Rippee with 10 points and Lindsey Blakey with 8. No Artesia player was in double-digits.

One aspect of the game that Portales excelled in all night was rebounding, led by Rippee who also finished with 10 boards and recorded the Rams’ second double-double.

“We rebounded well,” Fraze said, “but we kind of had to because we were missing so many point blank shots. We missed 18 point shots right under the rim in the first half, so it’s a good thing we rebounded well, but they didn’t stay there and they responded to it.”