The Rio Rancho High School girls basketball team entertains Los Lunas at 7 this evening in the fourth and final game of first-round action in the eighth annual Mel Otero Invitational at the Rams Athletic Center.

The Rams (3-3) are coming off a 48-39 loss to Class 4A’s St. Pius X Saturday evening in the championship game of the Farmers APS Farmers East Invitational tournament.

All fans in Eldorado High School’s gym knew was that a coach who lives in Rio Rancho would be the winner. That turned out to be Phil Griego, who lives in River’s Edge. His Sartans’ elation at winning was tempered by the grief hanging over them in the wake of a tragic auto accident Friday night, which led to the Sunday afternoon death of 17-year-old Cameron Ringer, a St. Pius student.

Wearing T-shirts bearing the words “We play and pray for Cam and J.J.,” the Sartans girls seemed on a mission.

That mission took a nearly six-minute hiatus, as third-period action came to a standstill with the game knotted at 31.

Earlier, the Sartans had scored first and led all the way, using a 12-2 first-quarter run to put some space between themselves and the Rams.

The Rams had pulled within one on a bucket by Megan Muñiz, but St. Pius was 2 of 2 at the line while Tracy Fosterling scored her team’s final point of the first half with one second to go before intermission to make it a 31-29 SPX lead.

Fosterling scored the game-tying buck with 6:42 to go in the third period, which led to the Sartans holding onto the ball.

Freshman Shelby Pendley, playing point guard for most of the game, would occasionally take a few steps toward the Sartan holding the ball near half court, only to see a few passes back and forth, Pendley drop back, and the same stalemate take place.

With about 28 seconds left in the period, the Sartans decided to go for the go-ahead score.

A layup by tournament MVP Mary Rose Paiz with 13 seconds to go gave the Sartans a 33-331 lead, but Pendley turned the ball over six seconds later and the Sartans had time to score again, this time on a Paiz trey from the corner that just beat the buzzer.

That upped her team’s lead to 36-31 and the Rams never managed to knot the score again, despite several opportunities.

With 3:40 left in the game, Muñiz fed a pass to Ashley Rhoades, whose layup made it a 40-37 game.

But Pendley soon fouled Agnes Gallegos, who nailed both free throws, and then made a bad-pass turnover with a little more than two minutes to play.

Coach Bob McIntyre called a timeout, and the Rams responded with a putback by Katie Crouch, following a miss by Muñiz, to make it 42-39. The Sartans capitalized on a couple of Rams mistakes, a turnover and a missed layup by Courtney Solwick, capping a 6-0 run to close out the game.

“You throw a lazy pass against Pius and it’s coming the other way,” McIntyre said. “We talked about that at halftime. We said we were in pretty good shape at halftime, after getting down 17-7 (and later 20-9).

“Our kids battled back we played well,” he added. “We’re getting better. I don’t think a lot of people thought we belonged in the same gym as these guys. I was proud of our effort and we just didn’t play well enough against a quality team.

“That’s how simple it was. Pius has a nice ball club,” he said. “It was a great game for our kids and, you know what? We’ll take it. We didn’t win, but I thought our kids got a lot better playing a game like that.”

Fosterling led the Rams with 9 points. Muñiz cored 8, Rhoades had 7, Amanda Solwick scored 5, Courtney Solwick and Crouch had 4 apiece, and Pendley had 2.

Rams 41, Valley 39: Avenging an earlier home loss to the Vikings, Rio Rancho held on Friday evening for a two-point win in one of the semifinal games.

St. Pius used a 21-6 fourth-quarter onslaught to beat Eldorado 54-51 in the other semifinal.

The Rams and Vikings went into the final period knotted at 30 and the Rams’ 11-9 advantage over the final eight minutes was the difference.

Muñiz led the way with 14. Courtney Solwick had 7, Fosterling and Ashlynn Steffensen added 4 apiece, Rhoades was limited to 3, and Amanda Solwick and Pendley had 3 apiece.

The game was won at the line, where the Rams were a less-than-spectacular 8-of-15 while the Vikings were 5 of 6.

“That was a great team victory,” McIntyre said. “We didn’t have that cohesiveness (against the Sartans).”

Ram dunks: Despite their proximity to St. Pius, the Rams and Sartans have met on the hardwood only four times and each team has won twice.

... The Rams are 12-2 all-time against Los Lunas, including a 39-34 victory in an Otero semifinal last December and a 41-30 triumph at the RAC on Jan. 6. The Tigers last beat the Rams on Feb. 9, 2000, 44-40 at RRHS. The Tigers play at Los Lunas on Jan. 11. Los Lunas (2-3) is coming off a 35-22 loss at Gallup on Friday.

... Asked what he knows about the Tigers, McIntyre replied, “I haven’t seen them. ... I’ve got enough to worry about my own team, let alone anyone else’s. It really doesn’t matter who we play, we’re just trying to get our kids to compete and play the entire game.”

... In other first-round games at the RAC today, Del Norte meets Sandia, coached by former Knights coach Susan Kubala, at 1 p.m. Clovis tackles Aztec at 3, and Las Cruces meets Portales at 5. The Rams face Clovis or Aztec on Friday, at 1 with a loss today or at 7 with a victory this evening. Game times through Saturday are 1, 3, 5 and 7, with Saturday’s 7 p.m. tipoff signaling the start of the championship game.