Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Portales senior Alexis Garcia protects the ball from Hope Christian junior Calicia Perea before she drives the baseline. Garcia had two points on the night.
Portales senior guard Zamorye Cox goes up for a third-quarter layup in Friday's District 4-4A contest at the Ram Athletic Center in Portales. Cox scored 24 points to lead three Rams in double figures of the 57-31 win.
PORTALES — Rams girls basketball coach Wade Fraze had never beaten Hope Christian, and was uncertain as to if Portales High had ever beaten the Huskies, period. During Friday night's District 4-4A matchup at Rams Athletic Center, however, all of that past frustration was let out by Portales, who channeled that previous disappointment into a 57-31 runaway victory.
Portales (20-2, 3-0) dominated from the opening tip, building a 23-point lead by halftime and never looking back in their 11th straight victory.
"If you've never beaten a program," Fraze said, "it's nice to beat them even once. I'll take it."
Hope Christian's (11-11, 1-2) Calicia Perea had an early layup to tie the game at 2-2, and it never got closer from there. The Rams proceeded to go on an 11-0 run, including a Zamorye Cox steal off of an inbound, leading to a lay-in, plus, she followed that up with a 3 and another steal and layup to give her 10 points in the opening period.
The Huskies finally broke the run with a Hayley Valencia bucket, but that was short-lived, as Cox drilled a trey, right before the buzzer. The 3-pointer started yet another big Portales run, as Taylee Rippee had a putback basket, followed by yet another Cox stolen inbound pass, resulting in a turnaround, one-handed layup.
Lindsay Blakey added a late basket in the closing minutes of the half, before Cox' drive to the hoop extended the Ram lead to 29-4. Hope finally got on the board in the second quarter with 31 seconds left, as Perea's lay-in was the first Hope Christian basket for an entire eight minute stretch.
"We didn't get out of the gate very good, we kind of stayed on the bus," Hope Christian coach Gary Ellis said. "Obviously all of the credit goes to Portales, a very talented team and extremely well-coached."
Hope showed a little bit more life in the third quarter, by scoring 13 points. However, Portales continued to lay it on the Huskies, as Cox added a couple more baskets. Cox led all scorers with 24 points, while Blakey and Rippee had 12 and 10 points, respectively.
For Fraze and company, Friday was yet another strong defensive showing, and was reminiscent of Portales' recent blowout win over Moriarty, who was previously 17-0 at the time. "Even though we had defensive lapses at times, I thought defense set the tone," Fraze said.
As for if he thinks a win like this increases his Rams' state title aspirations, forget about it. "We don't even talk about that, to tell you the truth," Fraze explained. "We don't talk about that at all — we don't even talk about winning a ballgame. (Instead) we talk about getting better every day out."
The Rams will next travel to Moriarty (20-1) on Tuesday, where they'll try to have another outing similar to the 47-30 rout over the Pintos, back on Jan. 19. Tip-off is expected for 5:30 p.m., with the boys game to follow.
