Portales boys rout Ruidoso

The Portales Rams earned a big early lead and survived an intense physical District 4-3A game, to dominate the Ruidoso Warriors Tuesday night at Portales High School 60-45.

Senior post Todd McBroom scored 11 of his game-best 17 points in the third period, as the Rams extended a 14-point halftime lead to a 24-point fourth period advantage.

“We started good,” McBroom said. Everybody plays their best game against us and we played well, It feels good when you execute.”

“It wasn’t pretty, we came out and played pretty well, controlled the game,” Portales head coach Mark Gallegos said. “It was kind of an ugly game the way it played out.”

Ruidoso junior guard Trent Apachito led the Warriors with 13 points, followed by senior post Ben Sanchez’ 11 points.

Portales senior guard Cruz Ontiveros put the Rams up early in the first quarter, scoring six of his 10 total points in the first period, and the Rams led 18-6 into the second quarter, before gaining a 30-16 lead at the half.

Despite the Portales kids keeping a large lead, Gallegos saw holes in his defense.

“Defensively, we’re still not where we need to be,” Gallegos said. “What I’m proud of is our guys keeping their cool. We know that we’ve got to keep our head. We talk all the time about not putting yourself in (a bad) position.”

Portales post Chance Sherburne contributed seven points followed by fellow senior post Erett Grubbs’ six points.

Portales continues District 4-3A action Friday night, hosting the Lovington Wildcats before traveling to Dexter for the regular season finale Friday, Feb. 16.

“We have to come out and have a better mental effort Friday night against Lovington,” Gallegos said.