Levelland hands Lady Rams first loss of season

DENVER CITY — It took three games for the Portales Lady Rams to really be tested, and they certainly got that on Friday night from Levelland.

Five-foot-4 senior guard Emma Kent nailed a trio of 3-pointers and finished with 21 points to lead the Loboettes to a 69-45 victory, moving Levelland into Saturday’s Denver City Shootout championship tilt.

Meantime, the Lady Rams canceled out of their game at Denver City on Saturday, with coach Wade Fraze noting that his squad is already scheduled for the New Mexico Activities Association’s maximum of 26 games this season. Had they won, he said, they would have played in the title game and probably canceled out of one of four scheduled games in this weekend’s event at Stanton, Texas.

Levelland (13-1) opened a 43-16 halftime lead before PHS (2-1) came back to play the Loboettes evenly the rest of the way.

“They’ve really got one of the best shooters I’ve seen in a long time,” Fraze said of Kent. “Seven 3s (by Levelland) is a lot for us to give up, but the game they played before this one they had six 3s with two minutes left in the first quarter.”

Still, Fraze said senior guard Teagan Faust had a more than creditable defensive effort on Kent, who had just 11 points through three periods.

“Even though she finished with 21 points, Teagan did a tremendous job on her,” Fraze said.

Senior Myka Graf added 19 points and junior Laci White 10 for Levelland. For the Lady Rams, senior post Kylyie Paden notched 18 points and 11 rebounds while senior guard Taris Rippee finished with 10 points and five assists.

Senior post Adrianna Garcia corralled 10 rebounds, while Faust added five assists and three steals.

Portales 55, Seagraves 10 (Thursday) — The Class 2A Lady Eagles were no match for PHS, which opened a 20-3 lead at the quarter and cruised from there.

Rippee collected 19 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Lady Rams, while Paden added 12 points and three steals.

“We had a good start,” Fraze said. “They’re a small school, they’re young and they don’t have a lot of size.”

Gabbie Espinoza was the high scorer for Seagraves (0-5) with five points.

Portales 59, Denver City 31 — Paden scored 22 points and had three steals while Rippee added 18 points and three steals for the Lady Rams. Rippee scored eight points in the first quarter as PHS bolted to an 18-2 lead, and Paden added 12 of hers in the second stanza.

Meantime, Faust scored just two points, but was credited with 11 assists and a team-leading five rebounds. Sophomore Sydney Roberts topped the Lady Mustangs with 13 points.