Ram teams suffer tough defeats to Trinity Christian

PORTALES — Both Portales High basketball teams looked to use Tuesday’s cross-state games with Lubbock’s Trinity Christian as educational experiences. And both did learn, though it might not have seemed so from a glance at the Ram Athletic Center scoreboard after each game.

The Portales boys lost 51-34, not long after the Lady Rams had fallen 62-58. Yet each was encouraged by what they may have gained from their game, how they may have evolved, as district play grew closer.

The young Portales girls may have learned the most against a Lubbock basketball machine.

“A lot of Texas schools don’t play volleyball, or if they do, they’re sport-specific,” Portales girls coach Wade Fraze said after Tuesday’s game. “So they know the game so well, they’re so fundamental, so basketball-smart. And any mistakes that you make, you pay for, and I think that’s what we can take away from that — try to play as much mistake-free ball as we can while playing free-flowing at the same time.”

The Portales boys got a barometer-reading against a powerful Lubbock program.

“What’s going to help us is their size,” Portales boys coach Rickie McBroom said after Tuesday’s contest. “We’ve got Artesia in our district who is very big, so this is great for us to go out and play a team that’s huge and be able to compete with them.”

The comeback kids

Portales’ girls team seemed to be fading against top-notch Trinity Christian in Tuesday’s second half.

The Lady Lions were only up 35-30 at halftime and 45-41 during the third quarter. But they stretched it to 51-43 by quarter’s end, and when Lauren Catherman’s steal-and-layup began the fourth-quarter scoring, the Lions held a 10-point lead.

After a Taylee Rippee basket, Trinity Christian’s Adlee Blacklock scored inside and lifted the Lions into another 10-point advantage, this time 55-45.

There might be plenty of inexperienced teams that would’ve packed it in at that point, but Portales didn’t. The Lady Rams, in fact, embarked on an 11-0 run to take the lead. Their surge began with a Taylee Rippee field goal and was followed by one free throw apiece from Taylee and Taris Rippee, making it a 55-49 game.

With roughly three minutes to play in the fourth, Alexis Ryen went high off glass to bring Portales within 55-51, and on the Lady Rams’ next possession, Mattison Blakey was fouled while banking one in, and she hit the ensuing free throw to pull her team within 55-54 as 2:48 remained in the fourth quarter.

Teagan Faust came up with a steal near midcourt, found her dribble to keep from the losing the ball, then fed a wide-open Taris Rippee for a lay-in that gave the Rams a 56-55 lead with 2:25 to go in the fourth.

A free throw by Trinity Christian’s Bo Boehning tied the game at 56 just outside the two-minute mark, and a pair of foul shots from Payton Dove with 1:30 left gave the Lions a two-point edge.

Catherman scored inside to hand Trinity Christian a 60-56 lead with under a minute to go, and though Blakey scored to make it 60-58 with 20 seconds remaining, Blacklock calmly sank two free throws with 9.2 seconds left to just about ice it for the Lions.

It was a disappointing loss for Portales after having pulled ahead, but an encouraging setback at the same time.

“I couldn’t be prouder to coach ’em because they don’t ever quit,” Fraze said, “and that’s why they’re never out of a game. They’re young, but they don’t quit.”

Next verse ...

Same as the first? Well, somewhat.

In their first matchup since Portales won the Class 4A title last March, the Rams took a 49-28 victory Friday night at Moriarty.

Riley Shillings hit a pair of 3-pointers in the closing seconds of the third to break open a tight game, and Portales dominated the fourth for a 49-28 victory.

“It was a huge win score-wise, but it was a tough, hard-fought game,” Fraze said. “Moriarty played well. We didn’t play as well as I had hoped, but we did finish well.”

Blakey scored 10 of her team-high 12 points in the fourth as the Rams outscored the Pintos 18-5. Taylee Rippee and Shillings each had 11.

Fraze said it was good to get a win, if only to break a four-game skid where the Rams hadn’t played terribly but consistently came up short.

“We’ve had some tough close games; close, but no cigar only gets you so much,” Fraze said. “They were double- and triple-teaming Taylee. We had some younger kids step up.”

Boys’ turn

In Tuesday night’s boys game, Portales began the scoring with a three from Kellan Hightower. Trinity Christian’s Ethan Duncan answered with his own trey, setting the tone for a fast-paced first quarter.

There were four ties in the opening minutes, but Trinity Christian closed the first quarter an 8-0 run, transforming what had once been a 9-7 Portales led into a 15-9 Rams deficit.

A right-elbow trey from Rico Diaz on the opening second-quarter possession made it a 15-12 game, and an inside bucket from Jaycob Medlin brought the Rams within just one.

Trinity Christian, however, then got five straight points from Duncan — on a right-elbow trey and a scoop in the lane — to give the Rams a 20-14 edge. A Bryce Hiner layup handed Trinity Christian an eight-point lead, and a Hiner foul shot just a bit later made it a 23-14 difference.

Portales snuck within 23-18 by halftime, thanks to another Diaz trey and a Diaz free throw late in the second quarter. And early in the third, consecutive baskets from Kenevan Bailey and Hightower drew Portales within 23-22.

But Trinity Christian slowly began pulling away, stringing together more baskets then Portales could answer. As a result the Rams went up 26-22, then 29-24 and 33-26 before carrying a 37-28 lead into the fourth quarter.

With Trinity Christian ahead 38-30, a layup by Tru Buchanan gave the Lions their first double-digit lead of the night. And because Buchanan was fouled on the play, he went to the line where hit a free throw to make it 41-30. It was the start of 9-0 Trinity Christian run that put the game away.

“Defensively, we did a pretty good job. I was real happy with our defense,” McBroom said. “Throughout the game we just missed some wide-open shots that I know we can make. We just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight. ... If we’d have hit some of those shots then it’s a little bit different ballgame. But we didn’t, and that’s something to learn from.”