Portales junior Jenna Wagner, No. 11, drives to the basket Saturday night against Dexter. The Portales girls won 61-5.

The bad news for the Dexter Demons is they scored just three points in the second half.

The worse news is compared to the first half, that would be considered a rally.

Portales scored the game’s first 20 points, and treated the rest of Saturday night as a practice in a 61-5 rout of Dexter.

The Rams had the mercy-rule running clock throughout the second half with a 38-2 halftime advantage, and spent the night trying not to run up the score.

“I explained to the girls that we don’t want to ever embarrass anyone,” Stout said. “It is difficult in trying to tell them not to play hard.”

Dexter (3-16, 0-2), which never attempted a free throw, would have been blanked in the first quarter if not for Krystal Paez’ layup with 14 seconds left.

Jenna Garcia hit a fourth-quarter 3-pointer for Dexter’s other points.

“I credit their players, they played hard the whole time,” Portales coach Clay Stout said. “I was impressed because they never gave up.”

Ashley Hernandez led three players in double figures with 15 points. Jenna Wagner added 14 and Gabby Garcia had 11.

Stout tried to treat the second half as a practice, getting his players to focus on fundamentals.

“We need to get better passing the ball around,” Stout said. “There are things we can work on to get better and not humiliate a team. I was pleased we didn’t get sloppy, I thought the girls kept their concentration.”