Lady Rams finish sweep at Stanton
Dec. 13—STANTON, Texas — Portales High's girls completed a total domination in Stanton's weekend Hooptown tournament with five wins over Texas opponents, including victories on Saturday against Lamesa 44-29 and Colorado City-based Colorado H.S. 49-28.
Junior guard Audrey Paden, who had a 24-point breakout game on Friday in a thumping of Rankin, continued her scoring surge on Saturday with 17 points against Lamesa (9-11) and 16 against Colorado (2-15). The five wins boosted the Lady Rams, who host another Texas foe in Frenship on Friday night at the Ram Athletic Center, to 6-3 for the season.
"We grew a lot this weekend," said PHS girls assistant Nate Chavez, who filled in with head coach Wade Fraze away tending to a family matter. "It gave us a good platform for what we wanted to see. We have a big task ahead of us on Friday against Frenship."
In easily their closest game of the event, Paden converted three 3-pointers against Lamesa. Senior Laila Vaquez topped the Lady Tornadoes with nine points.
PHS dominated the first (17-3) and third (14-2) quarters in rolling over Colorado. Sophomore guard Tya Rippee also reached double figures for Portales with 11 points, while the Lady Wolves' top scorer was freshman guard Jaida Silva with seven.
PHS boys finish third at Farwell — Portales opened a 17-11 lead at the quarter and went on to beat Sundown 65-55 in Saturday's boys third-place game of the Farwell Invitational.
Senior guard Davian Lucero led three Rams in double figures with 18 points, including four of the team's seven 3-point baskets. Senior center Emmanuel Diahn added 14 points for Portales (3-2), while senior guard Xodus Gomez tallied 11.
For the Roughnecks (3-5), junior center Watson Evans netted 18 points, and sophomore guard Adan Escamilla added 12.
Portales was to visit Clovis on Tuesday night. This weekend, the Rams are competing in a three-day tournament at Pojoaque.
