Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES — As they largely rely on relentless defensive pressure, it doesn’t look like the Roswell Coyotes are going to die by the 3-pointer any time soon.
Friday night, they certainly lived by it, as a mix of long-range shooting and an attacking defense turned a 30-21 halftime lead into a 76-44 clubbing of Portales at the Ram Athletic Center.
Taymon Burrola and Tarren Burrola accounted for 42 points and 11 3-pointers as the Coyotes (15-5) won their fifth-straight heading into their Tuesday night game against Hobbs.
The Coyotes opened up a 30-point lead late in the third quarter, and ended the night outscoring Portales just on long-distance shooting with 15 3-pointers. Taymon Burrola had eight of them and 26 points, while Tarren Burrola had three and 16 points.
“We don’t have much size, and what we have to do is shoot the ball well,” said Roswell coach Moses Burrola, in his second season as head coach after 13 as an assistant under Britt Cooper.
The 3-pointers were tough to take, Portales coach Rickie McBroom said, but Roswell creates the most difficulty on defense.
“They’re a good ball club,” McBroom said. “They put a lot of pressure on you. They work really hard on defense. They’ll press full court, half court, it doesn’t matter. They put pressure on us for 32 minutes.”
The Rams, who fell behind early in the first, had chipped their way back to a nine-point deficit at the half. But Roswel went 26-11 in the third quarter, and the lead never got below 21 the rest of the way.
Kellan Hightower had 11 points to lead the Rams (12-7), who are now off this week before starting District 4-4A play Feb. 5 at home against Goddard.
McBroom said the week off was a result of the New Mexico Activities Association moving the state tournament by a week, followed by numerous unsuccessful efforts to schedule other teams.
“We’re just going to work on a lot of different things,” McBroom said. “Hopefully, some things we think we’re good in, we’ll get to be great and some areas where we’ve struggled we’ll get better.”
