Basketball Recap: Cleveland Comes Up Short in High-Profile Game with Rio Rancho

On Friday, Cleveland faced Rio Rancho in a battle between two of the state's top teams. The Cleveland Storm fell just short of the Rio Rancho Rams by a score of 79-76. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Wednesday (65), the Storm still had to take the loss.

Rio Rancho found their leader in sophomore Noah Lovato, who made all 11 shots he took racking up 31 points and five rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Lovato has scored all season. Kevin Archuleta was another key player, putting up 11 points and five assists.

Cleveland has traveled a rocky road recently having lost three of their last four matches. That's put a noticeable dent in their 17-9 record this season. Those losses can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 74.8 points over those games. The victory was the third in a row for Rio Rancho, bringing their record for this year to 15-11.

Cleveland does not have any more games scheduled as of now. As for Rio Rancho, they are taking a road trip to face off against Farmington at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Rio Rancho is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 69.9 points per game this season.