Rio Rancho avoids 0-2 start, defeats Volcano Vista

RIO RANCHO – You’re never too deep into a basketball season to learn something new about a team.

Take coach Steve Heredia’s Rio Rancho Rams. Two nights earlier, the Rams were in Farmington, leading by 15 in the fourth quarter. But the Scorpions came back, and eventually stunned Rio Rancho in overtime.

So it was that second-ranked Rio Rancho had a quick turnaround ahead of a visit by No. 4 Volcano Vista. And the Rams avoided an 0-2 start in league play with a key 71-59 home victory over the Hawks on Friday night.

“They showed me they are tough enough to win games we have to win,” Heredia said. “That’s a good sign moving forward.”

This was the third meeting between the District 1-5A rivals this season. Rio Rancho (15-2, 1-1) won 68-67 on Dec. 31 in the final of the Rams’ holiday tournament. Volcano Vista (13-4, 1-1) beat the Rams 68-66 in the metro semifinals two weeks ago.

There were eight lead changes in a largely competitive game on Friday with a large crowd on hand.

The final change came on two free throws by Dashon Bynum after a technical foul on Volcano’s Eli Covell late in the third quarter. Bynum also had tied the game at 44 moments earlier on a 3-pointer.

The Rams fashioned an 11-0 run to close the third quarter to shift a 44-41 deficit into a 52-44 lead. And Volcano Vista was unable to get any closer than four points over the final eight minutes.

“There was not urgency (to win),” Heredia said, reflecting on the road loss Wednesday. “All we talked about was working on our toughness for four quarters. We weren’t tough enough to win the game Wednesday night. We challenged their toughness, and we talked about championship-level effort every possession, whether it’s offense or defense.”

Hawks junior David Lunn finished with 14 points, but he was visibly frustrated, at one point speaking to his family nearby about how he was unable to get any open looks. He had just two points in the opening half.

“David’s arguably the best player in the state. He’s so hard to stop, especially when he gets going downhill,” Heredia said. ‘We didn’t guard him much different than we did the first two games, we just guarded him better. We just played a really smart basketball game tonight.”

Bynum led all scorers with 22 points.

“Our goal was to come out and be aggressive and have them try to match our energy, and we did that and we ended up with a win,” Bynum said.

The Hawks ended the game as emphatically as a team possibly could, with Cayden Richardson throwing down a ferocious two-handed dunk the final 10 seconds for the game’s final points.

“They rose to the occasion tonight,” Heredia said. “I’m really proud of them.”

Houston Brown scored 15 points for Volcano Vista. So did Finlay Fitak, including a rare four-point play as he drained three 3s in the early moments of the third quarter after Rio Rancho took a 34-28 lead at halftime.

James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at @JamesDYodice.