Huskies edge Portales in district battle

PORTALES — The 1 vs. 2 matchup delivered as promised, as Portales High gave its fans all they could want and then some.

Visiting Hope Christian, though, took the matchup with a 64-60 win in what could be a first preview of the Class 4A championship.

Nelson Longmire scored a game-high 17 points for Hope Christian (17-4, 4-0) in the District 4-4A matchup that ended with the Huskies in the driver's seat.

The Huskies started the game with a 10-0 burst, forcing the Rams to somewhat go away from their inside game with Jeremie Karngbaye and start a long-range strategy.

"I think it's the first time we've seen them in a long time," Portales coach Rickie McBroom said, "and it took us a little bit to adjust to the intensity of the game. We always want to get the ball inside, but another way we like to get it inside is through penetration. They were doing a good job on Jeremie."

Karngbaye scored 15 points to lead Portales (17-3, 3-1) while Junior Ramirez added 12. But he had to work for those points, with Hope making every point from the Portales big man a struggle. Whether it was intense fronting the post, tenacious help-side defense or just flat out swarming him when he got the ball down low, nothing came easy for Karngbaye on the night, a key factor in Hope's win.

"We tried to do a good job of helping (on Karngbaye)," Huskies coach Jim Murphy said, "but you know, they are a great team and they stepped out and hit some 3s that kept them in it. We try to concentrate on him, but they are balanced. We are happy to get the win on the road, but they are a great team and we are probably going to have some battles."

Marcus Medina scored 13, Preston Ulibbari had 12 and Isaiah Dockery finished with 11 for the Huskies.

Even with Portales sinking six 3-pointers in the first half, four for Ramirez, Hope maintained a lead until five minutes left in the third quarter, where Portales finally managed to take a one point lead.

"Going into every game," Ramirez said, "everyone focuses on Jeremie a lot, so it opens up all of our shooters. When they play heavy pressure on me, we have three or four other guys that can hit the trey-ball just as well as me."

The Rams' lead did not last though, as Hope rattled off five points in the blink of an eye to regain control and never lost it.

"They are pretty talented," said McBroom. "I think we just have to learnt o stay with it a little bit more, talk a little bit more. I think communicating would help tremendously."

While a Ramirez dish to Karngbaye would bring the deficit to within two points, 62-60, with only :19 left on the game clock, two clutch free throws by Medina would finish the Rams off.

While the win would have been nice, according to McBroom, the Rams are not worried about the future.

"We are going to look at the film real close; we know how they want to play now. We'll make our adjustments and we feel real good about the next time we play them, even if it is in Albuquerque.

"The fans were just great tonight, really awesome to have them here."

Portales resumes its schedule Tuesday, hosting Moriarty. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.