ALBUQUERQUE — Senior guard Shawn Carrasco scored 20 points Saturday to help the Portales Rams beat Mora 64-52 in the third-place game of the Hope Christian Invitational.

The Rams (7-8) jumped ahead 18-5 at the end of the first quarter and maintained the lead the rest of the way.

“Overall, it was a good weekend,” Rams coach Mark Gallegos said. “We came up here and we really wanted to play in the championship game, but we lost a close game to Santa Fe Indian (Friday) night.

“(But) I think we are better now than when we first got here.”

Junior guard Stephen Shields added 13 points and junior post Jesse Blue 11 for the Rams. Senior guard Lee Pacheco paced the Rangers (4-10) with 10 points.

Portales opens District 4-3A action on Tuesday in Roswell against New Mexico Military. Gallegos said the Rams just need to tweak a few things to be ready for that part of the schedule.

“I think the game helped us to get ready for our district opener against NMMI on Tuesday,” Gallegos said. “Our defense is still a work in progress. It is still the only thing we have to improve on. Offensively we’ve got it figured out, but defensively we still have to make some changes.”