Good weekend for RRHS boys and girls, CHS girls

In addition to the CHS boys’ three wins last week, the city’s other three teams ended their pre-district slates with victories.

Rio Rancho boys 69, Roswell 58: The Rams made the trip east to Roswell on Friday and had a happy return ride home.

“The second quarter was the difference in the game,” said coach Wally Salata. “We outscored Roswell 24-8 in the quarter … (and) we forced Roswell into 10 turnovers, and they shot 1 of 12 from the field.

“Our biggest lead in the game was in the fourth quarter, 64-43, with 4:30 left in the game,” he said. “Roswell then went on a 13-0 run to cut the lead to 64-56. Kevin Archuleta then hit an old-fashioned three-point play to put the Rams up double-digits with under two minutes to play. “

And the team held on, with Jayden Johnson leading them in scoring with 16 points; Jerry Archuleta had 13 and Kevin Archuleta added 12.

Rio Rancho girls 60, Roswell 46: On Saturday afternoon, Madi Martinez sank three 3-pointers in the first quarter and finished with a game-high 17 points to lead the Rams past the Coyotes.

Roswell (10-7) led for most of the first half, 16-15 at the end of the first quarter and 25-22 at intermission.

After Roswell sank a 3 to start the second half, the rams used a 9-0 run to take the lead for good.

They led 42-34 after the third period and the Coyotes could get no closer than five the rest of the way – and RRHS closed out the game’s final five minutes on a 12-3 run.

Lilly Martinez and Makenna Lee each had 11 for the Rams.

“I thought that our team struggled a little bit in the first half,” said second-year coach Lori Mabrey, “and that team does a good job of game-planning us.

“We like to run and he kind of slows the tempo, and he did in the first half. I think in the second half, our defense got a little smarter.”

The Coyotes turned the ball over 21 times, many of them forced by the Rams, who had only a dozen turnovers.

After the teams combined to sink all six of their first 3-pointers, they kept “cranking it up,” Mabrey said.

“I really tried to get our girls to understand we need to go for higher-percentage shots, especially early on,” Mabrey said. “I thought a lot of times it was one pass, crank a 3; one pass, crank a 3.”

The Rams, after Madi Martinez’s trio of 3s, missed their next five shots from behind the arc, then hit two of their final four. Roswell finished with eight treys out of 20 attempts.

“I knew it was going to be a pretty good basketball game for us.”

Cleveland 49, Santa Fe 38: Four days after 49 points wasn’t enough to beat visiting La Cueva, it was enough to win at Santa Fe.

Kindyll Sandoval led the Storm Saturday with 16 points and Savannah Madueno joined her in double figures with 14.