Still young, but one year wiser

PORTALES — Portales High’s girls return all but two players from last year’s team. Despite that, the Lady Rams remain young as they head into a season-opening tournament this weekend hosted by Santa Fe High.

PHS has just one senior to go with nine sophomores and three juniors on its opening roster. The Lady Rams face Espanola Valley at 2 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Santa Fe meet.

Despite the team’s relative youth, seventh-year coach Wade Fraze said the Lady Rams have a chance to make a name for themselves.

“I like the experience we have coming back,” he said. “They may be young in years, but I don’t think they play young.”

Leading scorer and rebounder Taylee Rippee has moved on to Eastern New Mexico University this season, and has helped the Greyhounds get off to a 5-1 start. Meantime, guard Codi Flores was slated to play at Graceland (Iowa) this year, but sustained a torn ACL which will keep her out for the season.

Rippee ranked top two in Fraze’s tenure in a number of categories, including scoring (1,276 points) and rebounding (663). Last season, she averaged 19.5 points per game and 8.4 rebounds per outing in leading the Lady Rams to a 16-12 record.

Last season was a rebuilding year of sorts after PHS claimed the Class 4A state title in 2018, its second state crown under Fraze’s tutelage.

“I knew it would be (a rebuilding process),” Fraze said. “We graduated six of our top seven players from 2018. We can’t really replace Taylee this year, but I’m hoping our depth will help us.”

Three players who were primary starters last season return in 5-foot-5 junior guard-forward Mattison Blakey, 5-9 junior post Alexis Ryan and 5-5 sophomore guard Taris Rippee, Taylee’s sister. Taris Rippee, 5-2 guard Riley Shillings and 5-4 guard Teagan Faust all got significant playing time as freshmen.

Just who will start remains up in the air early on, Fraze said.

“With our depth at this point, we may have a different starting lineup for the first five or six games,” he said. “We’re not very tall, but most of our bigger kids are mobile.”

Blakey, trying to follow in the footsteps of two older sisters who had standout careers at PHS, said defense and rebounding are probably the keys to the season.

“If we can play good defense and block out on the boards, I think we can be really good,” she said. “In practice, we always work on defensive and block-out drills.”

The Lady Rams know it will be different without having Taylee Rippee around to carry the scoring load.

“Our goal last year was to get her the ball as much as we could,” Blakey said. “No one could really guard her.

“This year, we’ll be more of a guard(-oriented) team. My goal is to be more consistent this year as far as scoring.”

Fraze said the Lady Rams expect to have a regular rotation of eight or nine players.

They hope to build on a round-of-16 state playoff win last season against Artesia, in which they overhauled the Lady Bulldogs with a 22-6 surge in the final quarter at Ram Athletic Center.

“This gym was the loudest I’ve ever heard it that night,” Fraze said. “I hope what these kids showed that night is an indication of what we can do this year.”

Fraze said defending Class 4A champion Los Lunas enters the season as the team to beat, but others have the potential to challenge. Could the Lady Rams be in that category?

“I’d like to think we are,” Fraze said. “And our (District 4-4A, also including Roswell Goddard, Artesia and Lovington) is going to be good. There’s not a team that you can count out.”