Preview: Portales Rams vs. Tucumcari Rattlers
The Portales Rams will head out on the road to square off against the Tucumcari Rattlers at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Portales comes in on five and Tucumcari on nine.
Portales stacked an eighth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Tuesday. They breezed by Texico at home to the tune of 58-27. Given Portales' advantage in MaxPreps' New Mexico basketball rankings (they are ranked 12th, while Texico is ranked 74th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Estancia typically has all the answers at home, but on Saturday Tucumcari proved too difficult a challenge. They came out on top against the Bears by a score of 44-35.
Tucumcari found their leader in underclassman Kyla Lopez, who scored 19 points along with eight rebounds and three steals. Lopez has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last 11 times she's played. Another player making a difference was Caylee Benavidez, who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds and two blocks.
Portales' victory was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 13-4. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 50.5 points per game. As for Tucumcari, their win bumped their record up to 12-1.
Portales strolled past Tucumcari in their previous matchup back in January of 2023 by a score of 52-36. The rematch might be a little tougher for Portales since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
