Rams fall to Smyer in Littlefield tourament semis

The Rams started off the Littlefield Tournament on the right foot, but weren’t able to win their second-straight game of the tournament as Portales fell to the Slaton Tigers 46-33 on Wednesday morning.

One quick look at the box score and it’s easy to see why Portales (5-3) lost. Only three Rams scored and junior center Jeremie Karngbaye was the lone Portales player in double figures with 18. Senior forward Bronte Staugaard scored nine and junior guard Darion Ontiveros added six points.

“We’ve got to get better at scoring the ball,” Rams coach Rickie McBroom said after the game. “We need to have more than three people scoring in a game.”

Even with the loss, McBroom was very pleased with the defensive play of his team.

“We played good enough defense that we could have won that game,” he said. “We fouled at the end with the hopes that they’d miss their free throws. but if you hold somebody in the 40s, you always have a good chance to win.”

Portales lead 19-17 at the half, but things went south in the third quarter as the Tigers (10-2) outscored the Rams 29-14 in the second half, including a 14-4 outburst in the third quarter.

The Rams will play Thursday at 10 a.m. MST against the Nazareth-Smyer winner.