The injury-riddled Rio Rancho High School girls basketball team closes out the regular season this week with home games at the Rams Athletic Center Thursday and Saturday.

Although the Rams (14-9, 4-3) seemed destined for a third-place finish in their four-team district, they have an opportunity to play a spoiler role in the fate of Gallup (here Thursday) and Cibola (here Saturday).

Both games begin at 7 p.m. Saturday's tip-off will be preceded by "Senior Night" festivities, with 12th-graders Melissa Hillenbrand and Annette Dominguez playing one of their final home games and Stephanie Lopez, who ended her season last month after tearing an ACL, watching from the bench. The Rams split their last two games.

La Cueva 47, Rams 28: In their Monday evening make-up of a Dec. 21 game postponed by snow, visiting Rio Rancho stayed close until midway through the second period.

The fifth-ranked Bears (19-3) - the Rams were No. 8 in the latest poll - then extended what had been a 14-10 lead after the first period to a double-digit lead during a 6-0 run.

That gave La Cueva a 24-12 lead, and the Bears maintained the double-digit lead the rest of the way.

The Bears wound up taking the second quarter by a 16-6 count, as all six of the Rams points came from sophomore guard Megan Muniz, who had two field goals and a pair of free throws.

Down 30-16 at intermission, coach Bob McIntyre wasn't about to concede the game.

"I thought the second half, if we have any kind of energy and enthusiasm, we're right back in it," he said. "How many opportunities did we miss? And we still cut it to 10, and just looking for that basket to get it under 10.

"There just wasn't a whole lot of enthusiasm."

Although the Rams "won" the third period, 9-6, they fell back into their lackadaisical style in the final period, scoring but three points on a basket by Muniz and a free throw by Ashley Rhoades.

Laura Burnett took care of the rebounding chores for the Bears, and scored most of her 10 points on easy putbacks.

"They got a lot of putbacks; we got beat-up on the boards," McIntyre said. "Got beat (by) 10 boards. ... Burnett hurt us."

Brenna Freeze led the Bears with 11 points, although she closely guarded by Courtney Solwick throughout the game.

Muniz led the Rams with a game-high 12. Rhoades had 8, Melissa Hillenbrand scored 6 and Solwick had 2.

Rams 54, West Mesa 36: The Rams added another chapter to their MASH season Friday at West Mesa, when Rhoades banged up a knee and sat out the fourth quarter.

Fortunately for the Rams, Rhoades returned three nights later to help the cause against La Cueva, and her services weren't really needed as the Rams beat the Mustangs (7-15, 0-7) for the 19th time in as many meetings. The two teams are expected to meet in the first round of the district tournament next week.

The Rams used a 13-0 first-quarter run to take the lead for good, allowing only two Mustangs field goals en route to a 15-5 lead at the end of the first period.

The Rams' offense stalled in the second quarter, frequently turning the ball over and missing some easy shots, which helped the Mustangs climb back into the game, 21-14, at halftime.

Rhoades had a game-high 6 points at halftime, but didn't score again, with McIntyre getting a lot of time and effort from his reserves, Annette Dominguez, Ashley Anderson, Geraldine Neru and Katie Crouch. The bench was "shorter" than usual because sophomore Tarrah Sweet was sick and stayed home.

Muniz had the hot hand in the third quarter, another dominant showing by the Rams and a two-field goal outing by West Mesa. Rio Rancho owned a double-digit lead less than a minute into the second half and that cushion later grew to as many as 25 points.

Muniz scored 10 of her 14 points in that period, while Hillenbrand had five.

Latisha Adams used her height advantage, with Rhoades sitting on the bench with an ice bag on her knee, to swat away several shots and drop in two of her team's three fourth-quarter field goals; she finished the game with her team's lone 3-pointer and 17 points. (She'd scored 19 one night earlier in a 38-29 loss to visiting Gallup.)

West Mesa, an improving team despite its record, scored the game's final six points, with coach Brett Jones calling a timeout with 1:14 remaining and maybe having a 22-point play in mind, which his team would need to tie the Rams at that point.

"Boy, we needed that win, we really did," McIntyre said. "It was a game where, obviously, the way we've been playing and the fact West Mesa almost got us that second time, the way we played that night and beat them, I was really pleased."

Ram dunks: The Rams C team opened the evening at West Mesa with a 49-32 victory over the Mustangs. Nishelle Newsome scored 21 points and Shelby Pendley had 12. Newsome had 15 and Chelsea Engel scored 14 as the Rams beat La Cueva 52-39.

... The Rams junior varsity team also won twice, beating West Mesa 58-45 as Chelsi Bolen and Angelina Donnell shared scoring honors with 13 apiece. At La Cueva, Jackie Montoya led the Rams with 10 in a 39-36 win that wouldn't have been as close if the Rams hadn't missed five consecutive free throws in the game's final 31.5 seconds.

... Cibola pulled off a30-28 upset at Gallup Friday night, moving a game ahead of the Lady Bengals in the standings. Skye Barnett's buzzer-beating "J" was the difference. The Cougars clinched the 1-5A regular-season title after a 32-26 victory over visiting Gallup on Tuesday.

... Former Ram Nicole Tatum scored 4 points and had 4 rebounds as her Adams State College team fell to visiting Western State, 54-35, in front of 1,377 fans, the largest ASC homecourt crowd of the season. Tatum, who fouled out in the contest, had her parents and former coach Lori Stephenson watching from the stands.

... McIntyre and the Rams were guests of "GameDay" on KOB-TV on Feb. 2.

... The Rams and Bears split two games in 2005-06; all-time, the Bears hold an 8-5 edge.