Lady Rams complete perfect run through district

PORTALES — With the District 4-4A regular-season title already clinched, and facing a team they’d beaten a couple of weeks earlier by 34 points, Portales High girls coach Wade Fraze found less than pleased with his team’s outing, especially early.

That’s despite the fact that the Lady Rams cruised past Lovington 61-36 on Friday night, locking up a perfect district run.

PHS (19-5, 6-0 district) trailed the inexperienced Lady Wildcats 12-10 at the quarter, but behind 14 of senior guard Taris Rippee’s game-high 25 points the Lady Rams posted a 20-5 advantage in the second stanza and stayed comfortable the rest of the way.

Fraze, though, was upset about the early effort.

“It was awful,” he said. “We just played terrible in every respect.”

Still, he said Lovington (6-20, 0-6) gave a pretty good account of itself.

“Lovington came to play,” Fraze said. “They were aggressive and physical, and they shot it pretty well.”

Portales takes the No. 1 seed into this week’s district tournament, and will await an opponent for Friday’s 6 p.m. championship contest at the Ram Athletic Center. Meantime, the Lady Wildcats visited third-seeded Artesia (11-14) on Tuesday.

Senior post Kylyie Paden earned a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, while senior guard Teagan Faust flirted with a triple-double — seven points, eight rebounds and 12 assists.

Freshman Myleigh Banda came off the bench for a season-high 10 points, all in the second half.

The Lady Rams dominated at the free throw line, making 21-of-27 to Lovington’s 7-of-13. Rippee went 8-for-8, while sophomore Audrey Paden added 5-for-5.

Lovington’s leading scorer was eighth-grader Malaiya Castro, who finished with five 3-pointers and 20 points.

Lovington 69, Portales boys 55 — It was a long night for the Rams, who went winless in district play and faced the prospect of returning to Lovington for a first-round district tourney game on Tuesday.

The Wildcats (18-7, 4-2), who knocked down 11 3-pointers in a 66-46 win at The RAC earlier this month, added seven more in this one, including three by senior guard Joey Villalobos. Lovington led 23-7 after one stanza, and Portales made it more respectable with a 23-point fourth quarter.

Senior forward Tayten Hilliard scored 27 points and senior guard Adam Aguilera added 14 for the Wildcats. High man for PHS was junior post Emmanuel Diahn with 16 points, while junior guard Davian Lucero added 10.

Portales boys 63, New Mexico Military 39 — In a makeup game played on Saturday afternoon at the RAC, PHS (11-14 overall) pulled away from the Colts with a dominant second half, including a 17-2 run in the third period to expand a four-point halftime lead.

Portales got two 3-pointers from sophomore guard Braden Beck and another from sophomore guard Zane Mayberry in the third stanza. Diahn was the only player on either team to reach double digits with 16 points, although Beck’s three 3s allowed him to finish with nine.

Senior guard Lance Miller led NMMI (5-13) with nine points.