Portales boys rally to beat Santa Fe Indian

SANTA FE — It wasn’t always pretty, but the Portales Rams boys basketball team managed to rally back against Santa Fe Indian School in the opening game of the St. Mike’s Shootout, erasing a fourth quarter deficit to beat the Braves, 64-60, in overtime.

“What changed was in the fourth quarter, we started pressing,” Rams coach Rickie McBroom explained. “We weren’t real aggressive offensively or defensively most of the game. But what it came down to late is that we had to get more aggressive and we were able to cause some turnovers.”

Portales (9-5) got itself into a hole early, trailing Santa Fe Indian (8-7), 14-6, after the first quarter. The Rams continued to trail throughout the game, and were down by six in the closing stages before making some things happen to force overtime.

Ultimately, Portales scored the first four points of the overtime session, and managed to hang on for the win from there. Isaac Gomez kept the Rams in the game throughout the night, according to McBroom. Gomez led the Rams with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

The Rams will next take on the host team, St. Michael’s, who was routed by Silver City on Thursday night. According to McBroom, however, he expects the Horsemen to give the Rams all that they can handle when the two teams square off tonight at 7.

“They’ve got some size and they’ve got some good guards,” McBroom said. “They’re gonna be very disappointed (by Thursday’s loss to Silver City) and they’re gonna come out and give us their best game. We also need to come out and play a lot better than we did tonight.”

Prep summaries

Boys

Thursday

Portales 64, Santa Fe Indian 60, OT

SF Indian (8-7) — Raheem Alonzo 13, Anders Pecos 13, Jason Abeyta 12, James Bridges 11, Jaden Aguino 4, Alex Aguino 4, Kurt Candelaria 3, Totals 21 10-16 60

Portales (9-5) — Isaac Gomez 19, Braden Bridges 16, Austin Davis 8, Tyrese Dawson 7, Kellan Hightower 7, Vince Gardner 4, Rico Diaz 3, Totals 27 6-10 64

SFIS 14 15 15 12 4 — 60

Portales 6 18 16 16 8 — 64

3-pointers — SFIS, Pecos 4, Alonzo 3, Candelaria 1. Portales, Hightower 1, Diaz 1, Bridges 1, Dawson. Junior varsity — Portales 54, Santa Fe Indian 44.