Portales trounces Colts

CMI staff writer

[email protected]

When the Portales Rams and New Mexico Military Institute Colts stepped out for the fourth quarter, Ram point guard Jarret Faust would have been the tallest player on the floor for the Colts.

link Tony Bullocks: Clovis Media Inc.

Portales senior Jarret Faust brings the ball across half court against the defensive pressure of NMMI junior Mac Brown in the first half of Saturday night’s game at the Ram Athletic Center.

At the end of the night, Faust, who spent most of his night passing the ball and creating NMMI turnovers, would have been the Colts’ leading scorer too.

Whatever comparison you could find, it likely swung heavily towards Portales in a 65-25 win over the outmanned Colts.

“They’re just way better than us,” said NMMI coach Pilar Carrasco, whose squad never led and never recovered after Portales (11-9) closed out the first quarter on an 11-0 run.

The Rams, playing without the injured Daniel Sanchez, had little trouble, never giving up double figures in any quarter while limiting the Colts (8-11) to 11-of-39 shooting to go with 26 turnovers.

“We’ve been stressing to our kids the defensive end of the floor,” Portales coach Rickie McBroom said. “Our defense created some easy baskets for us.

“We came off three pretty good days of practice. The same things we worked on in practice, we saw them execute on the floor tonight.”

Nathan Chavez scored 17 points to lead the Rams, who only had two double-figure scorers but had 10 of their 11 players who saw minutes enter the scoring column.

“We had come off a loss to Tucumcari; it was about bouncing back,” said Chavez, who shot 6-of-13 from the field and pulled down a team-high five boards. “We were focused on executing our stuff, so we can be better down the road.

link Tony Bullocks: Clovis Media Inc.

Portales senior Matt Martinez pulls up for a jumper over NMMI’s sophomore Dante Mora in the first of Saturday night’s game at the Ram Athletic Center.

“Defense is your best offense. If we go out and play our best defense, we can give teams a good game.”

Isaiah Alvarado scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while Portales got eight points each from Zach Campbell and Caleb Burciaga, while Faust had six points and five assists.

The game went quickly, thanks to the mercy-rule running clock throughout the fourth quarter, 12 total fouls and 11 total free throws.

Saturday

Portales 65, NMMI 45

NMMI (8-11) — David Mier 3-5 0-2 6, Abraham Mier 2-4 1-2 5, Aldo Elias 2-3 1-2 5, Dante Mora 2-5 0-0 4, Mac Brown 1-11 0-0 3, Duncan Hayes 1-2 0-0 2, Trent Foster 0-3 0-2 0, Peter DeGroot 0-6 0-0 0, Carlos Xibille 0-0 0-0 0, Evan Tirado 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 11-39 2-6 25.

Portales (11-9) — Nathan Chavez 6-13 1-2 17, Isiah Alvarado 6-8 0-1 14, Caleb Burciaga 4-6 0-0 8, Zach Campbell 4-4 0-0 8, Jarret Faust 3-6 0-0 6, Matt Martinez 1-4 2-2 4, Ben Martinez 1-4 0-0 2, Marcos Lucero 1-1 0-1 2, Paul Conrow 1-3 0-0 2, Bronte Staugaard 1-3 0-0 2, John Young 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 28-54 3-5 65.

3-pointers — NMMI 1-17 (Brown 1-8, DeGroot 0-4, D. Mier 0-2, Foster 0-1, A. Mier 0-1, Mora 0-1), Portales 6-20 (Chavez 4-10, Alvarado 2-6, Faust 0-1, Lucero 0-1, Staugaard 0-1, Young 0-1). Rebounds — NMMI 28 (A. Mier 9), Portales 25 (Chavez 5). Turnovers — NMMI 26, Portales 10. Total fouls — NMMI 5, Portales 7. Fouled out — None. Technical fouls — NMMI coach Pilar Carrasco. Junior varsity — Portales 66, NMMI 16. C-team — Portales 45, NMMI 15.

Portales visits Texico on Tuesday, while NMMI hosts Loving.