The Rio Rancho High School boys basketball team heads into the state playoffs for an unprecedented third year in a row when 13th-seeded Alamogordo visits the Rams Athletics Center Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Rams are coming off a 13-point victory over visiting Cibola Saturday in the District 1-5A championship game at the RAC.

The Tigers are coming off a 16-10 (not a typo) loss at Gadsden Friday in the District 3-5A tournament. The Tigers were the 3 seed, the Panthers were the 2 seed. A victory sends the fourth-seeded Rams (18-11) to The Pit for the third year in a row.

The Rams and Alamogordo have met once before: The Tigers handed the Rams a63-58 state quarterfinal loss in The Pit in 2006.

“Now’s the time to get some revenge against them,” said third-year Rams coach Brian Smith. “Their big gun, (6-foot-5 senior post Matt) Peeler, has been out with a sore knee. He was a big contributor two years ago.

Junior 6-0 guard Travis Geiger is the Tigers’ leading scorer this season, averaging 17.1 points a game.

“We’re excited to get a rematch with them at our place,” he said, hoping for a large crowd at the RAC. “I’d like to see more students get out; our fans are mostly alums.”

The winner Saturday ad-vances to a state quarterfinal game Wednesday morning at 9:45 in The Pit against the winner of the La Cueva-Gadsden Round of 16 contest.

Rams 71, Cibola 58: Behind a game-high 20 points from District 1-5A’s Player of the Year, Marcus Williams, the Rams posted their eighth win in a row and third consecutive district title Saturday.

Three victories in that streak have been at the expense of the Cougars (17-11), who handed Rio Rancho its last loss, 71-63, back on Feb. 1 at the RAC.

The Rams led through most of the opening quarter, relinquishing a 13-12 edge when Dustin Westby canned a 3-pointer from somewhere near mid-court.

There were three lead changes in the second period, with the Rams beginning what turned out to be a decisive 12-0 run by scoring the final six points of the half, three by Chris Newsome at the foul line plus a trey by Isaac Aragon.

“We just told them, as bad as we played in the first half, we’re still up one (26-25). ... We knew the second half has been our half all season,” he explained. “We just knew it had to start with the defense and that’s exactly the way we came out — I think we got six straight points off defense in the third quarter which, to me, was the difference.”

Cibola managed only two field goals in the third period, when they scored five of their nine points at the free-throw line.

The Rams, meanwhile, scored 18 in the third quarter, paced by seven from Williams.

Then, like he had done to start the third period, Williams opened the fourth quarter with a steal and a slam-dunk for a 46-34 Rams lead.

The Cougars whittled that double-digit down to seven as close as they’d get the rest of the way, during a 6-0 run. Smith called a timeout with 3:14 left in the game.

Later, with the Coogs again down seven, 59-52, the Rams used an 11-0 run to put the game as Josh Quintana scored seven of those points, en route to a career-high 13.

“Q,” as he’s called by Smith and the rest of the team, opened the late run by sinking a pair of free throws — he wound up going 5-of-5 at the charity stripe — and had a steal and a layup, doing a nifty impression of Williams, sans the dunk.

“Defensively is what sparked it for him and he had a great week in practice,” he said. “We knew that his minutes were going to be quality minutes when he got in there, and so that’s what I told the coaches, ‘With Q in there, he’s going to get some steals,’ and so that’s why we put him in there. ... I’m real proud of him.”

Newsome joined Williams and Quintana in double figures with 14; Jorel Johnson had a pair of treys and finished with 8, Josh Walker supplied 6, Aragon had 5, Seth Baldwin had 4 and Elijah Wolfe chipped in with 1, the Rams’ final point of the game.

Smith said beating the Cougars was extra special for the Rams, in light of the 11-year rivalry.

“It meant a lot to these guys because they’ve been in the shadows of last year’s team a little bit, and for them to kind of get their own district championship is pretty special,” he said. “They’ve come a long way from the beginning of the year and we’re just real thrilled to get the third one in a row now.”

Ram dunks: Like the Rams, the other four top seeds each won home-game district titles Saturday: La Cueva beat Albuquerque High 42-40 in 2-5A, Mayfield defeated Gadsden 45-39 in 3-5A, Clovis edged Hobbs 74-73 in 4-5A, and Highland slipped past Manzano 59-58 in 5-5A.

... Smith was the 1-5A Coach of the Year for the third year in a row. He deflected all the credit: “I know there’s a lot of praise with that but, like I said, I wish they’d give a district coaching staff of the year (award), more than just a coach of the year because I don’t do it by myself, I’ve got a lot of guys that put in a lot of hours with me and I’m proud of these guys for the way they work, and the way they respond to me.”

... Joining Williams on the All-District first team were Rams Newsome and Aragon; Johnson and Walker were honorable-mention selections,

... Other first-round games Friday night are: No. 16 Oñate

at No. 1 Clovis; No. 15 Valley at No. 2 Hobbs; No. 14 Gallup at No. 3 Highland; No. 12 Gadsden at No. 5 La Cueva; No. 11 Manzano at No. 6 Mayfield; No. 10 Albuquerque High at No. 7 Los Lunas; and No. 9 Sandia at No. 8 Cibola.

... The Rams were a 4 seed two years ago, when the field was first “seeded;” last year, the Rams were the No. 1 seed.