Rams roll into 4A quarterfinals

PORTALES — The Portales boys basketball team used a 40-point first half to pull away from Shiprock Saturday night, advancing to the Class-4A quarterfinals with a 74-57 win.

The Rams (23-4) really spread the ball around on offense, with five players finishing in double-digit, led by Jeremie Karngbaye with a game-high 20 points, Junior Ramirez added 12 while Jase Wallace, Darion Ontiveros and Ethan Self all scored 10 each.

Portales moves on to a 4:45 p.m. Wednesday quarterfinal against St. Michael's at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho.

"We started in man and [Shiprock] was so deliberate, we changed up our defense and it really caused them some problems," said Rams coach Rickie McBroom. "They hurt us a little bit with penetration in the second half, but on a whole we got some offense and created a lot of turnovers."

Portales used a good mix of fast break and half court offense to do their scoring, never relying on one or the other. As most team's have found out this season, there was little Shiprock could do to keep Karngbaye from scoring on the inside — either off the pass or the offensive glass.

"We are really starting to do the stuff that we do in practice," said McBroom. "We are real proud of our kids and our community, for the support they gave us, but now we get ready to head to Albuquerque."

Three players were in double-figures for the Cheiftans (11-17), who found limited success against the Rams from the 3-point line all night. Arvin Begay scored 11 points while Landon Henderson and Kieon Harvey each scored 10.