Storm get 20th win, dominate Rams again

RIO RANCHO – There was a brief time Tuesday evening when it looked like the host Rio Rancho Rams were about to pull off an upset of the visiting No. 1 Volcano Vista Hawks on Senior Night in the RAC.

It didn’t turn out that way, though, for the Rams, who lost their fifth game in a row, 64-51.

There were six lead changes in the Feb. 20 encounter, all in the first quarter, which ended with the Hawks (24-1, 7-0) ahead, 16-11.

At halftime the Hawks’ lead was eight, although the Rams had been down by a dozen before rattling off the last five points of the half.

“We’re gonna beat ’em,” RRHS assistant Ramon “Swoops” Montaño told those at the scorer’s table before the second half started.

A Rams’ turnover led to a layup by Hawks freshman David Lunn, giving VVHS a 37-27 lead.

Undaunted, the Rams battled back, closing to a 43-41 deficit before two free throws by Kenyon Aguino – his first points of the game – jump-started what became a 16-3 run to leave the Rams in the dust, 59-44.

Lunn and Aguino were saddled with two fouls apiece before the game was two minutes old and rode the bench for the rest of the first half. But the depth of the Hawks, with coach’s son Hudson Brown nailing a 3-pointer in each quarter and Rian Gonzales scoring a game-high 22 points – he had six treys – kept them near-perfect. Their only loss was to Cleveland in Hobbs in late December.

That 16-9 fourth-quarter advantage made the game look like a blowout, but, as RRHS coach Wally Salata said, there are no moral victories.

“We gave it our best effort – senior Night,” Salata said. “There’s positives. Again, there are no moral victories, but I thought the kids competed. … We had Aguino and Lunn in foul trouble. We took at least six or seven charges, which I’m very impressed with for our guys – it shows we can put a body in front.

“There’s a lot of positives it’s just that energy … we’ve got to play like that the rest of the year,” he said. “It’s our district, 1-5A: That’s the No. 1 team in the state. (And) we turned the ball over the first four possessions of the fourth quarter; if you’re going to make a run, you can’t do that.”

Josiah Marfil led the Rams with 17 points and a 6 for 6 outing at the foul line. Noah Montoya was 5 for 5 at the stripe, finishing with 14 points and even canned a 3-pointer.

“Noah Montoya played a really good game,” Salata said, after he started five of his six seniors against the Hawks.

As for the upcoming state tournament, and his team about to finish with a losing record, Salata said, “We’re flirting right now with 15, 16, 17 – we’re right there. We can’t lose out – we’ve got to win another game.

“We’ve got to go into Cleveland (Thursday) … I expect us to come out against Cleveland and play better. We’ve got to take care of the basketball, understand their main guys are Remy (Albrecht) and (Daniel) Steverson.”

Cleveland 85, Rio Rancho 53: Two nights later, the Rams didn’t take care of the ball nor control Steverson and Albrecht, as Cleveland won its 20th game of the season – the ninth season the Storm have won 20 or more games. The Rams lost their sixth game in a row.

They suffered their sixth loss in a row, and this outcome was never in doubt: The Storm (20-6, 5-3) opened the Senior Night contest on a 17-4 run and never looked back. Cleveland hit its first three 3-point attempts, on its way to 13 for the game, while the Rams managed only three treys that evening.

Albrecht and Isaiah Sandoval, who came off the bench for all 12 of his points, had four 3s each in the rout.

It was 25-8 at the end of the first quarter, 56-27 at halftime, and most of the third quarter and then some of the fourth quarter were played with a running clock, with the Storm (20-6, 5-3) ahead by 35 or more points.

Steverson won the city’s battle of the 1,000-point scorers, with a game-high 22 points; Rams thousand-point guy Jayden Johnson, wearing No. 21 instead of his usual 34, was limited to 7 points. Albrecht, who didn’t start, finished with 20 points. Steverson also had a crowd-stirring alley-oop dunk off a pass from Noah Padilla.

Kaden Decker led the Rams (12-14, 1-7) with 13 points, and Jerry Archuleta added 12.

Storm warnings: In the other District 1-5A contest played last night, No. 1 Volcano Vista needed overtime to defeat Atrisco Heritage Academy, 77-67, and remain unbeaten as the regular-season district champ. AHA finished in a tie with Cleveland for second place, but was relegated to third place in the 1-5A tournament via the tiebreaking procedure.

… The boys’ district tournament begins Tuesday at 7 p.m. with fourth-place Rio Rancho at last-place Cibola. The winner of that game plays at third-place Atrisco Heritage Academy Wednesday at 7, and that game’s winner is in the Thunderdome Thursday evening at 7 to meet the runner-up Storm (decided by the tiebreaker). The district championship game is Saturday at 7 in Volcano Vista’s Ring of Fire.

… The Storm’s win over the Rams last week was first-year CHS coach Zack Cole’s 200th career win, the last 10 percent coming with the Storm.