Rio Rancho finally won a game that it'd been more accustomed to losing.

The Rams boys (4-4) beat visiting Manzano 58-56 Tuesday evening for their third straight victory over the Monarchs (4-3), but it was anything but easy. Manzano was coming off a heartbreaking 49-48 loss to visiting defending state champ Eldorado in the APS East Invitational championship game on Saturday.

Rio Rancho saw what had been a 13-point third-period lead evaporate, as what had once been a38-25 lead at intermission and 10-point bulge with 12 minutes to go was turned into basically a 131-second contest. Knotted at 50-all after Chanselor Bell sank a pair of free throws with 2:11 remaining in the fourth period, freshman sensation Marcus Williams netted an eight-foot floater for a 52-50 Rams lead; 31 seconds later Williams had another bucket, finishing off his team-high 15 points for the game.

Paul Gabaldon nailed a 16-foot jump shot with 1:04 to go to reduce the Rams' lead to 54-52, and with 50.5 seconds showing on the clock, Rio Rancho's Tim Martin was at the free-throw line in a one-and-one situation.

Martin - who'd come off the bench and provided seven of his dozen points in the first quarter - missed the front end.

Gabaldon lofted a 3-point attempt that swirled off the rim, but was fouled by Santos Aragon.

In stark contrast to Martin's effort, Gabaldon canned his three freebies to put the Monarchs (4-3) ahead, 56-55, for the first time since the early stages of the game.

Williams missed a 3-point shot and Bell snagged the rebound and was fouled by Martin.

Bell sank the first of two free throws, and then missed the second. Williams missed an underhand layup at the other end and Brandon Thurgood scored with a putback, and was fouled.

Manzano coach Greg Brown called a timeout to 'ice' the Rams' senior post - to no avail.

With 12.8 seconds to play, Thurgood sank the free throw for what turned out to be the winning point.

On the Monarchs' next possession, and in traffic under the basket, Thurgood blocked a shot and created a turnover. Chris Williams was fouled with 4.3 seconds to play and after making one of his two foul shots, gave the Rams a 58-56 lead.

Manzano's Cash Davis, who, like Martin, came off the bench in the first period to spark his team with 6 points, missed a 40-foot buzzer-beater and the Rams were 4-4.

Thurgood had missed his first three free throws in the game and was annoyed at that, saying he always takes pride in his accuracy at the charity stripe.

"It was quite crazy," he said, recalling the Monarchs' timeout before his key free throw. "I'm more of a clutch free-throw shooter; I knew I was 0 for 3 going into that final free throw.

"Ever since I was young I've been in free-throw shooting competitions and I've been really good. I just went back to that; I had to remember everything that I did back then - and it went in," Thurgood said. "It felt good."

Thurgood, playing with four fouls, said he was confident his ensuing play, which caused a turnover, wouldn't draw a whistle.

"They were real easy with the whistle but there was no way they would have been able to call that a foul because I had my hand on top of the ball and I wasn't going allow them to shoot the ball," he explained. "I wasn't going to let them win after making that free throw and putting us up (by) one. There was no way I was going to let them win and no way the team was going to let them win."

Thurgood, who has scored as many as 11 points in a game and as few as 1, said it was easily his best outing of the young season, "by far. I mean, I knew somebody had to step it up down low because we've been having problems rebounding."

Earlier in the game, the Monarchs had used their height advantage down low to rebound offensively until they'd scored.

"When it came down to the clutch, we started getting offensive and defensive boards," Thurgood said.

Besides Marcus Williams and Martin's double-figure outings, the Rams also got scoring from Thurgood, who had 9 points; Chris Williams had 8, Orlando Jaramillo added 5, Chris Neff, who spelled Thurgood when he was in foul trouble, had 4, Carlos Romero had 3, and Aragon had 2.

The Rams again shot better from 3-point range, finishing 5 of 11 after a red-hot 5-of-6 start from behind the arc but making just 5 of 14 free-throw shots.

Rams 62, Albuquerque High 46: Chris Williams scored 16 points and his younger brother Marcus had 10, as did Martin and Aragon, in a rout of the winless Bulldogs in the seventh-place game at the APS West Invite Saturday afternoon.

Ram dunks: The Rams are home Friday evening to face Del Norte (3-3), which dropped a 66-55 contest to visiting Valley Tuesday evening. "We've got a tough one coming," RRHS coach Joe Cantou predicted, because the Knights are "very athletic, very quick." The Rams are 1-1 all-time against the Knights.