Portales girls basketball team looks for more consistency

PORTALES — The 2016-17 Portales girls basketball team was supposed to be in a rebuild, after losing several seniors from the year before — and returning little experience — in the process.

But somehow, the Rams managed to make a run to the 4A state semifinal. And now as the 2017-18 season tips off, they return much more firepower.

In fact, according to head coach Wade Fraze, his 2016-17 team returned just one starter, point guard Zamorye Cox, and little else. “Really, we fielded a majority JV team from the previous year,” Fraze said. “So, it was a big learning curve. Plus, our district was really, really tough. Hope (Christian), the two-time defending champion, was in our district, so there were four of the losses right there (between the district season, district tournament and state tournament). We had a hard schedule and were learning our way.”

This year, however, his Lady Rams will look to be more consistent, after dropping 11 of their final 21 to end last season. Cox returns to point guard for yet another year, after averaging 13.1 points, 4.1 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game as a junior.

However, despite her impressive offensive output, the best thing that the 5-foot-6 senior does may very well come on the defensive end. A year ago, Cox averaged an astounding 4.5 steals per game.

“I think it has helped a lot that I’ve played my whole life,” Cox said. “Just being able to read a lot of people and anticipate, and definitely my God-given ability to be quick.”

The future Eastern New Mexico Greyhound is not the only senior on the roster, however.

Five other seniors will join her, including Lindsay Blakey, Alexis Garcia, Lilly Saiz, Sarah Lovato and Kelly Fraze. According to Coach Fraze, this year’s Rams are deep everywhere, as he refers to his team as a “starting eight,” instead of a starting five.

Blakey is the team’s tallest post player at 6-0, while junior Taylee Rippee was the leading rebounder as a sophomore. Guard play is especially deep, and Fraze believes every one of his kids is a scoring threat.

As for the schemes that his Rams like to run, well, it’s pretty simple. “Everything,” Fraze said, laughing. “We really do run everything. I think the best teams can play any style. We have a style — I like to play an uptempo game. But if we limit ourselves to an uptempo style, and we’re in a half-court, grind-it-out game, we’re at a disadvantage.

“I expect us to be good in the half-court, good in the open court — whether we need to run a man or a zone combination, I want to be good at every aspect of the game. It’s hard to pinpoint an offensive scheme — I like team play and ball movement.”

Defensively, Fraze prefers a man defense, but he says that his girls can also play a zone and a combo defense, and ultimately, it’s “whatever the need calls for.” Based on Portales’ District 4-4A opponents, including Hope Christian, the need to run a little bit of everything is probably a necessity.

However, despite a tough district that also includes Moriarty, expect a non-district foe to be the team likely standing in Portales’ way for the Rams first state title since 2014.

“I would say the team to beat right now would be Robertson. They were really good last year, and they didn’t lose a single player — not even a bench player,” Fraze said. “They have the exact team they had last year. They’re very athletic, they’re very deep. Hope is always good, because they’re Hope. Shiprock is always tough, Moriarty’s gonna be good. So, there’s gonna be a lot of good teams in our classification.”

The Rams will face Muleshoe tonight, in a 6:30 p.m. home game. For Fraze, there are still some growing pains of a team transitioning from fall sports — like soccer and volleyball — to basketball.

As for what the Rams will have to do to be better than a year ago, “probably just finishing a lot of our shots,” Cox said. “And being aggressive, without fouling as much.”

# Player Year

3 Sarah Lovato Sr.

10 Mattison Blakey Fr.

11 Zamorye Cox Sr.

12 Alexis Garcia Sr.

14 Lilly Saiz Sr.

20 Codi Flores Jr.

22 Kelly Fraze Sr.

23 Lindsay Blakey Sr.

24 Kinzie Davis Fr.

25 Aaliyah Austin So.

33 Taylee Rippee Jr.

34 Marisela Garcia So.

Schedule

November

28 — Muleshoe, 6:30 p.m.

December

1-2 — at Clovis Shootout, TBA; 5 — Grady, 5:30 p.m..; 7-9 — at Santa Fe Capital City Tournament, TBA; 12 — West Las Vegas, 5 p.m.; 15 — Robertson, 6:30 p.m..; 16 — at Clovis, 7 p.m.; 18 — Texico, 5:30 p.m..; 28-30 — at Littlefield Tournament, TBA.

January

2 — at Artesia, 7 p.m.; 5 — at Lovington, 7 p.m.; 6 — Lubbock Christian, 3:30 p.m..; 9 — at Roswell, 7:30 p.m..; 12 — Lovington, 7 p.m.; 16 — at Goddard, 6:30 p.m..; 19 — Moriarty, 5:30 p.m..*; 23 — Ruidoso, 5:30 p.m..*

February

2 — Hope Christian, 7 p.m.*; 6 — at Moriarty, 5:30 p.m..*; 9 — Ruidoso, 5:30 p.m..*; 13 — at Hope Christian, 6 p.m.*

All Times Mountain * — indicates 4A District 4 game