The Roswell Coyotes ruined the Portales Ram basketball season opener Tuesday night at Portales High School 73-47. “That’s the worst defensive effort that a Portales team has played since I’ve been here,” Gallegos said. “Even if we’re not where we need to be defensively in terms of positioning, it’s effort. We just didn’t put forth the effort to get into position.” “We could have played defense a lot better,” Ram senior Jacob Brady said. “We practiced a lot better than we played tonight.” The Rams (0-1) scored the first basket of the game, but that was the only time the Portales boys led, as the visiting Coyotes (4-1) took a 22-9 first quarter lead. Senior Daniel spurred the Coyote onslaught with 11 points in the first quarter. Dominque Miller put in 8 points in the second quarter, as Roswell High extended their lead to 44-21 at the half. The Rams outscored Roswell High 16-12 in the third quarter, but the Coyotes won the fourth quarter battle 17-10, to claim the victory. “I was real disappointed in our basketball team,” Ram head coach Mark Gallegos said. “No matter if you’re young — we could use that as an excuse but we didn’t compete tonight. We just did not come out and compete. We let Roswell come out and have their way with us.” Roswell had four players scoring in double-figures as Castro had a team-high 17 points. Justin Teran collected 15 points and Miller and Michael Rubio both added 13 points. Sophomore Marcus Slocum was a bright spot for the Rams, scoring a game-high 20 points — including seven points in the fourth period. Slocum also connected for six-of-nine free throws. “He’s gotta be in double figures every night,” Gallegos said. “But the thing is, we’ve got to be able to get him the basketball. He’s pretty hard to stop. He’s pretty athletic.” Junior Walker Partin was the only other Ram in double figures with 11 points. “We just rolled over, and there’s no excuse for that,” Gallegos said. “We weren’t ready to play and I take full responsibility for that.” “We really didn’t play good at all,” senior Ky Mitchell said. “It’s our first game — I guess we’re only going to get better.”