Rallying from a double-digit deficit in the first half Saturday evening, the Rio Rancho High School girls basketball team won its first Mel Otero Invitational since 2003 after a 48-44 victory over seventh-ranked Las Cruces Saturday night.

The Rams (6-3) beat unranked Los Lunas 37-34 in an opening round game Thursday, then upset No. 5 Clovis on Friday to get to the championship game against the Lady Bulldawgs.

Las Cruces beat Portales 54-43 on Thursday and Sandia, 61-51, Friday to set up the meeting between the ‘Dawgs and Rams. Unlike their semifinal game, in which they shot 60 percent from the field in the first half against Clovis, including 7 of 9 in the second period, the Rams struggled early.

After Las Cruces took a 5-0 lead, Rams coach Bob McIntyre called a timeout with 2:58 left in the opening period. To that point, his team had missed its first six shots from the field and turned the ball over five times.

Apparently inspired by their coach’s instructions, the Rams scored the next four points and played their visitors evenly the rest of the period. Amanda Solwick canned a 15-footer that beat the buzzer and the Bulldawgs’ lead was 11-6.

The Bulldawgs scored the first two buckets of the second period, including a 3-pointer, to extend their lead to 10 points, 16-6.

Closely guarded throughout the game as Las Cruces employed a diamond-and-one defense to free a defender to watch her, Megan Muñiz scored to make it 16-6 before Las Cruces took its biggest leads of the game, 19-8, on another trey.

McIntyre called another timeout, this one with 4:52 left in the half, and the Rams went on to pull within one point with a 10-0 run to close out the period.

The teams traded buckets for the early going of the second half, with the Rams falling behind by three on several occasions before Ashlynn Steffensen connected on two of three free throws after being fouled behind the arc for a 34-33 deficit heading into the fourth quarter.

The Rams could have owned the lead before Steffensen’s shots, but missed five consecutive free throws.

There were five lead changes in the first 2:30 of the fourth quarter when Tracy Fosterling converted a pass from Muniz into a layup and a 39-38 Rams lead.

Solwick nailed a 15-footer less than 35 seconds later and the Rams had a 41-38 lead. This time, Las Cruces coach Matt Abney needed a timeout, but his team never tied or led again.

After the timeout, Fosterling’s baseline layup made it 43-40. McIntyre called two timeouts before the next basket was scored, this time on a layup by Steffensen that made it 45-40 and a two-possession game.

The Bulldawgs never got closer than three the rest of the way, with a Muñiz free throw with 8.5 seconds to play icing the game.

Muñiz finished with 12 points to lead the Rams, while Fosterling wound up with a career-high 10 to join her in double figures. Rounding out the Rams’ scoring were Ashley Rhoades with 8, Amanda Solwick had 6, Steffensen had 5, Angelina Donnell had 3, and Courtney Solwick and Katie Crouch added 2 apiece.

Dominique Rivera had a game-high 18 for Las Cruces, while Andrea Aragon scored 9, all on 3-pointers. The two were named to the all-tournament team.

Muniz, Rhoades and Fos-terling were Rio Rancho’s all-tournament team nominees.

“I told them before the game the two best teams were playing tonight,” McIntyre said. “Right now, I’m really happy because we have a team.

“We found someone else tonight again; it was Tracy Fosterling. And then Ashlynn started hooking up; Amanda played her best game; Courtney’s been solid all year.

“The three that I think have been solid all year have been Courtney Solwick, Ashley Rhoades and of course Megan,” he said, seemingly the happiest he’s been all season after seeing his team win six of its last seven games and destined to close out 2007 with another victory.

“But we have other kids stepping up: In this tournament, we saw Kelsea Hawkins give us great minutes. Talisa Puentes gave us great minutes. And you can go all the way down (the roster),” he said. “It’s kind of fun to coach them. I didn’t know how they were going to respond — I told them last year’s team got into a couple of championship games, and we got into the district championship game, and we never won any of them.

“I challenged them to take that step right now, early. I said, ‘We got into one last week and we didn’t complete the deal.’”

He was referring to the Rams’ 48-39 loss to St. Pius in the APS East tournament on Dec. 7.

“I know it and I think Megan knows it. This tournament for Megan, she became the coach on the floor a coach is looking for, and I know the kids are happy,” he continued. “They kind of came in under the radar and they’re starting to feel pretty good about themselves.”

The Rams were No 10 in the preseason poll and they’ve since beaten three teams ranked ahead of them in Class 5A.

“I don’t want them to feel too good — I just want them to be humble,” he added. “They’re humble when they’re successful like that, and they come back to work hard and just play the game, play the game — it’s as simple as that.”

The Rams’ win over Clovis almost seemed simple, but it didn’t start out that way on Friday.

Rams 43, Clovis 34: The Rams played their best game of the season to date and beat the Wildcats for the first time since Dec. 12, 2003, to advance into the championship game.

It wasn’t a perfect game, mind you. The Rams were horrible at the free-throw line, where they made just 5 of 14 shots; Clovis was much better at the charity stripe, going 10 of 13.

The Rams pulled away from a deadlock at 8, going on a 10-0 run and taking the lead to keep. That ran became an impressive 16-2 run and turned into a 27-12 lead at halftime. Going 7 of 9 from the field was hard to beat; Rhoades had half of her dozen points in the second period.

“It’s funny, because before the game I told them, ‘We’ve always been behind in every game. Why don’t we get ahead? McIntyre asked. “I was hoping halftime wouldn’t happen. I told our girls, ‘Hey, halftime’s the best thing for them, because I guarantee (coach Miles Watters) is going to try to do something to get them going.’ At halftime we talked about coming out and continuing to do what we had been doing.

“We gave up a couple easy ones and they made a run, like they’re going to. They’re well-coached; they’ve got a good ball club, but our kids weathered the storm.”

The Wildcats never threatened again, getting no closer than seven points in the second half — and that deficit didn’t occur until a mere 40.9 seconds remained to be played.

“If there was anything to be disappointed about, it was our free-throw shooting,” McIntyre said. “We’re going to need them sometime. We had different kids in there, but that’s a sign of our inexperience.”

Muñiz finished with a game-high 19 points and was 5 of 6 at the line; teammates Courtney Solwick, Rhoades, Angelina Donnell and Steffensen combined to go 0 for 8.

“(It was the) best win of the season and against a quality team — that’s going to help at the end of the year in the rankings and seeds,” McIntyre said.

Ram dunks: The Rams close out the calendar year with a game at Manzano at 7 p.m. Friday. Rio Rancho is 11-1 all-time against the Monarchs, whom they beat 52-36 last year.