Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Portales junior guard Brenna Jewell gets tangled up with a Tucumcari player during Friday's girls matchup at the Ram Athletic Center. Jewell scored a personal-best 15 points, including three 3-pointers, in the Lady Rams' 52-36 victory.
PORTALES – Brenna Jewell has gone from a parttime junior varsity/parttime varsity player to becoming a key contributor for the Portales Lady Rams.
The junior guard funneled in a personal-best 15 points on Friday night, including a trio of 3-pointers, as PHS pulled away late for a 52-36 victory over Tucumcari at the Ram Athletic Center.
Lady Rams coach Wade Fraze said Jewell's contributions have come on both ends of the court.
"She was on their best player (senior guard Alexus Lafferty, averaging around 16 ppg), and held her to six points," Fraze said. "She did an excellent job."
Portales (8-8) had its hands full with the Class 3A Lady Rattlers (11-4) for much of the contest, but finally pulled away in the final stanza. Jewell went 4-for-4 from the free throw line while freshman Skyler Massey went 2-for-2 to help seal it down the stretch after the team struggled from the stripe much of the night.
No one besides Jewell reached double digits for the Lady Rams, but four others finished between seven and nine points.
Portales held a 23-19 halftime advantage and still led just 28-23 midway through the third before extending the margin out to 10 by period's end. Tucumcari stayed in the game as long as it did with the help of six 3-point baskets, including three from senior guard Calee Benavidez, who finished with a game-high 17 points.
PHS owned the boards 44-18, led by sophomores Evannie Fulfer and Myleigh Banda with nine caroms apiece and eight from junior guard Audrey Paden.
"She had a pretty good game today," Fraze said of Paden. "She was good on defense."
Sophomore guard Angel Ornelas had team highs with four steals and three assists.
Fraze said he wasn't surprised the Lady Rattlers played as tough as they did.
"They're a good team," he said. "They've got speed and they can really shoot it."
PHS wraps up its pre-District 4-4A schedule with three games this week – Tuesday at Texico, Friday against Clovis at the RAC and Saturday at Roswell High. The Lady Rams also have a return game at Tucumcari on Feb. 4.
