Portales snares 4-3A title

The Portales Lady Rams rode a potent first-quarter offensive attack to a 69-48 victory over Ruidoso and wrapped up the District 4-3A championship Friday at Ram gym.

The win assures the defending state champion Lady Rams (16-9) of hosting a home game next week in the first round of the state tournament. Their opponent will be determined Sunday during a seeding meeting.

Portales coach Brenda Gomez was pleased with the offensive effort and the well-rounded contribution from the bench. What she didn’t like were the number of turnovers and fouls.

“We were making turnovers we normally wouldn’t make, probably because we haven’t played in a week,” Gomez said.

Every Lady Ram on the roster got into the scoring Friday in one of the better offensive attacks the team has had.

“Everybody who went into the game contributed,” Gomez said. “That’s very unusual in a district championship to have that.”

Lady Ram senior Sabrina Villanueva paced the Portales attack early as she connected with back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the first period. She hit a third a little later in the period and fellow senior Kaycee Quick got a put-back bucket to put the Lady Rams up 16-5. Portales stretched its lead to 39-23 at the half.

With Ruidoso (16-11) experiencing foul trouble in the third quarter, the Lady Rams stretched the margin to 20.

“I feel pretty pumped that we won,” Villanueva said. “This is my first year on varsity and to be able to light it up like that is great.”

Senior Amanda Terry said after meeting Ruidoso so many times during the year it was good to complete the sweep of three games. More important was the chance to play one more home game.

“It’s real important,” Terry said of playing at home next week. “After a good game like that you hope you get one more at home.”

Villanueva, Bethany Self and Briana Hernandez tied for scoring honors on the night with 11 points each.

Amber Gardner led Ruidoso with 11.