Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
MORIARTY — The Rams proved on Tuesday night that their Jan. 19 beatdown of previously-undefeated Moriarty was no fluke. Portales traveled to Moriarty this time around, and won going away, 70-47.
Portales (21-2, 4-0), still the only team to defeat Moriarty (21-2, 3-2) thus far, didn't quite hold the Pintos to 13 first-half points like their first meeting. Instead, Moriarty scored 13 points in the early going of the first quarter and led, 13-8.
However, the Rams quickly got their act together and went on a 12-0 run to carry a 20-13 lead into the second quarter.
"I think just not getting rattled after a slow start (was the difference in this game)," Rams coach Wade Fraze explained. "We upped our intensity and started playing our game. We didn't do anything differently (from our first matchup), but we just started playing our defense (after the slow start) and started blocking out better, our movement and our rotation got better (as the game wore on)."
Portales hit six 3's on the night, with three each from Zamorye Cox and Kelly Fraze. Cox finished with 17 points, six assists and three steals, while Fraze added 13 points of her own. Codi Flores, meanwhile, added eight important first-half points off the bench for the Rams.
The Rams will now return home Friday night to host Ruidoso, whom Portales beat, 68-23, back on Jan. 23. "The last time we went up there, we just had a terrible first half," Fraze said. "They just moved the ball well against our press, (but) our defense came around and started playing our game in the second half."
