Lovington outlasts Portales in Shootout finale

PORTALES — Portales High boys basketball coach Rickie McBroom knows his team is close to where it would hope to be; just not close enough at this time.

The Rams went down for the third consecutive night in excruciating fashion — and the fourth time in five nights for the week — as they lost to District 4-4A rival Lovington 52-50 on Saturday night in the Portales Shootout at the Ram Athletic Center.

PHS (5-9) lost a last-second 58-57 decision to Texico on Tuesday at the RAC, then dropped its three games in the Shootout by a combined 10 points. Again, the Rams were hurt by underwhelming free throw shooting (11-for-20), including 5-of-10 in the fourth quarter.

For the weekend, they were 35-of-64 from the line (55 percent).

“That’s something we’re really going to address on Monday,” McBroom said. “If we’d just shot decent free throws the last five or six games, we probably could’ve won them all.”

Both teams struggled offensively in a first half that ended tied 19-19 when the Rams outscored the Wildcats 7-0 over the final 70 seconds. The teams exchanged the lead several times through the second half before Lovington (10-4), which won its three Shootout games by a combined six points, opened the final stanza with a 9-0 run to lead 43-34.

“It was a great game,” Lovington coach Casey Pack said. “Both teams missed shots at critical times.

“We’ve just got to learn to handle pressure better at times.”

The Wildcats didn’t exactly sizzle at the line, going 16-for-30, but Pack said the three-day format should help both teams when tournament time rolls around in March.

“These are great games for us,” he said. “We’re finding ways to win right now.”

Junior guard Cobe Sandoval helped get Lovington over the hump, hitting three 3-pointers and scoring all 13 of his points in the second half. Meantime, senior guard Chris Perez added 11 points, including 7-of-11 free throws in the final segment.

Portales got 17 points from junior forward Josiah Tellez and 15 from senior guard Rico Diaz. Diaz had the best night of anyone at the foul line, finishing 5-for-5.

McBroom remains optimistic his team can get itself sorted out by postseason time.

“We’ve got to clean up a lot of little things,” he said. “I think we learned a lot from this game. We’re just going to show up on Monday and go to work.”

The Rams were slated to return to action on Tuesday night with a game in Lubbock against Trinity Christian.