Portales senior Alexis Orcutt tries to muscle her way past a screen by Dexter junior Krystal Paez (right) screen in order to defende Lady Demons senior Lindsay Brown (left) during Tuesday’s District 4-3A girls matchup at the PHS gym.

Portales senior Jenna Wagner gets a rebound and looks to pass to a teammate as Dexter senior Reagan Jordan tries to defend her.

Sophomore Danae Garza scored 18 points to lead the Portales Lady Rams past Dexter 55-16 on Tuesday in a District 4-3A girls matchup at the PHS gym.

Portales (13-7, 4-0 district) held Dexter scoreless and by halftime opened a 25-5 lead.

“I thought Dexter came out and played hard,” PHS girls coach Clay Stout said. “I don’t think we were sharp. We need to be sharper on passing the ball. We always talk about getting off to a good start and I don’t feel like we did that tonight.”

The Lady Demons (7-14, 0-2) battled back in the third quarter, scoring the first five points of the period to cut the deficit to 15 before the Lady Rams regained control. Portales led 34-12 after three periods, then outscored Dexter 21-4 in the final eight minutes.

“For the most part I thought we played good defense, but we turned the ball over a lot,” Dexter coach Kim Hamill said. “They got a lot of lay-ups that hurt us, but we adjusted our defense. We can’t compete with them.”

Portales had a significant size advantage, with no one for Dexter standing taller than 5-9.

Also in double figures for the Lady Rams were senior Jenna Wagner and junior Gabby Garcia, each with 13 points. No one had more than three points for the Lady Demons.

Portales travels to Lovington on Saturday for a 7 p.m. district contest.