The Portales Rams blew a 13-point lead as Artesia junior Derek Montoya scored 8 of his game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter powering the Bulldogs over the visiting Rams Tuesday night 47-42. “We led the whole way,” Portales coach Mark Gallegos said. “We played such a great game for three quarters.” The Rams led 35-24 going into the final period, but the Bulldogs outscored the Rams 23-7 in the fourth quarter to grab the lead and the win. The Bulldogs used several 3-point baskets to pull ahead in the fourth, and Portales had their chances to take back the lead. “It wasn’t that we got passive, we just started standing around offensively and they started pressuring up,” Gallegos said. The Rams were ahead for nearly the entire contest, taking a one-point lead after the first period 9-8. The Portales boys built on that lead to take a 20-15 advantage into the half, before building their 11-point lead heading into the fourth quarter 35-24. “It’s just kind of disheartening to break down like that at the end defensively,” Gallegos said. “We started really quick in the first half. We executed and we were clicking on all cylinders and then in the fourth quarter we got tight and made some really uncharacteristic mistakes.” Junior Nick Bliss led the Rams with 11 points, followed by sophomore Marcus Slocum’s 9 points. Senior Ky Mitchell added 8 points. Montoya’s 16 points were followed on Artesia’s side by senior guard Bryan Madrid with 8 points. The Rams (4-6) travel to Tucumcari Monday, before playing in the Hope Tournament in Albuquerque next week. “We take a step forward and then sometimes we regress,” Gallegos said. “But we’re getting there. As long as we learn from this (we’ll be fine) but it hurts to lose. It really hurts these kids to lose.”#