In their first of four straight road games, ninth-ranked Cleveland beat Rio Rancho by 25 points Friday night in the second meeting of the season between the city’s two varsity girls’ basketball teams.

This time, though, the outcome counted in the District 1-5A standings, where the Storm (12-8, 1-2) claimed their first victory and the Rams (4-14, 0-1) will have to wait until Tuesday for a shot at a 1-5A victory. Rio Rancho’s game with Gallup, postponed from its original date of Jan. 21 because of heavy snowfall in the west part of the state, has been rescheduled for Feb. 15 at RRHS.

The Storm are at West Mesa Thursday and Saturday; the Rams play host to West Mesa Tuesday, are at Cibola Thursday and at Gallup on Saturday. All of those games are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

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Storm 55, Rams 30: This one, as they say, was over early.

Oblivious to the raucous RRHS gym, the Storm opened the game on a 13-1 run and never looked back.

The Rams didn’t sink their first field goal until the final minute of the first period. They made two more field goals in the second period, with the Storm owning a comfortable 28-14 lead at intermission.

Sara Hattis, without a point in the first half but three blocks to her credit, came alive in the third period, notching a dozen of her team’s 17 points, mostly on fields from guards Jordan Bruere and Mariah Gonzales.

Meanwhile, the Rams continued to suffer offensively, making three field goals in the third period and then two more in the fourth quarter.

“We had too many turnovers,” said CHS coach Felicia Boatman.

Each team committed 18 turnovers

Hattis had a game-high 16 points and Bruere joined her in double figures with 12. Deanna Lucero paced the Rams with 10 points.

The Storm players were elated to have their first district victory; the Rams saw their slide continue.

Through their first 12 seasons of existence, the Rams girls had six 20-win seasons and five appearances in the state tournament’s semifinal round.

This season, the team appears to be on its way to its first 20-loss season, after posting victories in just four of its first 18 contests.

The cupboard was left bare for first-year head coach Patrick Puentes, a longtime assistant for former coach Bob McIntyre. McIntyre resigned following last season, which ended with a loss to state champ La Cueva in the state semifinals.

McIntyre wasn’t the only “loss:” First-team All-District players Megan Muniz, Tracy Fosterling, Ashlynn Steffensen and Courtney Solwick graduated in May; first-teamer Shelby Pendley headed to Cleveland High before transferring back to RRHS but is no longer playing basketball; and eighth-grade sensation Courtney Latham, plus a few other talented players from last year’s Rams JV team began the new school year at Cleveland because they reside north of Northern Boulevard.

Along the way, a school record was set Jan. 16 at Sandia High School: The Rams managed to score only 16 points, including a scoreless fourth quarter, in a lopsided 58-16 loss to the Matadors.

It was the worst loss in varsity girls’ history, surpassing a 68-30 loss to visiting La Cueva on Dec. 18, 1999. Previously, the fewest points scored by a Rams team were 19 in a 29-19 loss at Gallup on Feb. 3, 2007.

They found themselves on the other side of that Wednesday evening at Gadsden, where the Panthers didn’t even score in the first half and the Rams went on to win easily, 36-19.

Gallup 63, Storm 47: This certainly wasn’t the best game Cleveland has played, but it may have been the visiting Bengals’ best game.

No. 4 Gallup seemingly could do no wrong last Wednesday evening, getting off to an 8-1 start and never being threatened the rest of the way.

Hattis led the Storm with 13 points and Latham added 12.