Portales girls blast Ruidoso, 65-37

PORTALES — The Portales girls basketball team dominated Ruidoso Tuesday night, 65-37, behind standout performances from Kiki Helsley and Zamorye Cox.

Helsley and Cox both poured in 14 points, while Taylee Rippee added 10 for the Lady Rams (12-6, 2-0). The Lady Warriors (4-14, 0-1) were led by Lia Mosher with 15 points.

Portales jumped out to an early eight-point lead after the first quarter and never looked back. The game was over before the halftime buzzer sounded, with the Lady Rams going on a 23-7 run that put the lead well out of reach for Ruidoso.

Lady Rams coach Wade Fraze said, "It's real easy to look at the halftime score and let up mentally. I think we did a little bit, but not nearly as much as we could have ... I was proud of that."

Portales was also able to play a lot deeper into its bench, getting everyone on the team playing time. That was due in part to necessity, with Sky Marianito being sidelined with an injury for an unknown length of time, but also by design, according to Fraze.

"We were able to play deeper than normal and we want to do that as much as possible," said Fraze. "As the season goes on there may be times where we need to sub for whatever reason and they need to be as prepared as they can be, and they were tonight."

The Lady Rams will travel to Lubbock Christian on Saturday. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.