Rams boys hope to be ready for Matadors today

Rio Rancho High School boys’ basketball coach Wally Salata had mixed feelings about his team’s two-game road trips last week.

The Rams (6-5) went to Santa Fe on Jan. 6 and lost at Capital, 72-66.

Two days later, the Rams were on the long road to Carlsbad, where they beat the Cavemen for the second time this season, 48-47.

The team then had one day, Monday, to prepare for the grueling APS Metro Championships, in which they face last season’s Class 5A runner-up, Sandia, today (Jan. 9) at 5:30 at Del Norte High School.

“It was a good trip but scary,” Salata said of the venture east. “To go on the road, especially to Carlsbad, is very hard, especially when you beat them once already.”

The Rams had posted a 55-44 victory over the Cavemen in the first round of the City of Champions Classic in Artesia on Dec. 7.

“We needed (the win), especially after having a three-game losing streak,” Salata added. “We’ve got seven games in the next two weeks, which is a lot of games.”

That includes four at Metro, a home game with St. Mike’s on Jan. 16 and a game – another long road trip – at Roswell on Jan. 19. Then the Rams get a week off before starting the 1-5A slate Jan. 26 when Atrisco Heritage Academy visits the RAC.

Capital 72, Rams 66: Although their 3-point shooting improved two days later, the Rams were just 3 of 14 form long range at Capital.

“We got behind 13-3 right away,” he said. “We gave up 30 points on layups … Our biggest deficit was 52-37 in the third quarter, and we kept fighting,” Salata said. “That’s the one thing about our kids – we kept fighting. We cut it to one, and then had a couple miscues at the end of the game.

“I’m blaming our defense, and we had 26 turnovers,” he pointed out. “You can’t give up 15 layups and have 26 turnovers and expect to beat anybody – and we only lose by six. It is what it is.”

Jayden Johnson, with 15 points, fouled out in the fourth quarter, and “We didn’t have that scorer in there.”

Josiah Marfil led the Rams with 17 points and Kayden Decker added 15. But Johnson and Marfil combined for 14 of the turnovers.

Rams 48, Carlsbad 47: The Rams’ defense apparently came to play in the middle periods of this one, as the Cavemen managed only 11 points altogether in the second and third periods, then erupted for 23 in the fourth to make it close.

“They had 15 layups in transition or just in the half-court, and that’s way too many layups,” Salata said of the teams’ first meeting. “Our defense wasn’t there, so on Friday we watched two hours and 15 minutes of tape.

“People say I’m pretty crazy, but I said, ‘I don’t care about the gym. We have to fix some things on the court,’ and against Carlsbad (Saturday), they did not get one transition layup on us – so, to me, it worked.”

Offensively, especially from behind the arc, the Rams sparkled.

“We shot seven of 11,” he said. “When Carlsbad plays a zone, you gotta hit the 3, and we hit the 3. So that’s a positive. But in the fourth quarter, we gave up 23 … our defense fell asleep a little bit. They went 7 for 7 on 2s.

“They cut it to one. … We gave them many opportunities to be in the game,” he recalled. “We went up four with nine seconds left. They took their time getting it up the court … (scored on a 3-pointer) with 0.9 seconds to go.”

Senior guard Jerry Archuleta must like playing Carlsbad: He was the only RRHS player in double figures each time, with 15 in December and 12 on Saturday.

“For us, it’s a huge win – I don’t care if it’s by one or 50,” he said. “For us to get a win it was very positive in a lot of ways. I was very pleased we held them under 50 (always a Salata benchmark) after giving up 72 in the (previous) two games, and that’s the way we’ve got to play if we’re going to be successful.

“Sandia’s averaging 70 points a game. I just saw them play Academy – they scored 91, hit fifteen 3s,” he added. “That’s another story there.”

Salata had an analogy for his team and its fans: “We’re a 1,000-piece puzzle right now and when we were on that five-game losing streak, we started to have the outside of the puzzle almost completed. Then we started going to the inside of the puzzle and couldn’t find the right pieces,” he said. “I’m hoping this game with Carlsbad … will help us go into the next phase.

“I feel better going into the Metro tournament than I did (before the game at Carlsbad),” he concluded. “We do have a good six (players) right now, but we need seven, eight or nine to come through for us and that’s just a work in progress.”