Oak Creek — Three solid quarters on both ends of the floor was more than enough for the Soroco High School girls basketball team in the Rams’ home opener against South Park on Saturday afternoon.

After holding just a three-point lead after eight minutes of play, Soroco thwarted the visiting Burros, outscoring South Park, 66-15, in the final three quarters on the way to an 82-28 victory.

The Rams’ 82 points set a new single-game school record, beating out what the squad did twice last winter.

“There was more consistency,” Soroco senior Jessica Rossi said about the final 24 minutes of play. “We just got into a better flow.”

The Rams played Friday night in Rangely and stuck around for the boys’ contest afterward, which didn’t wrap up until about 10 p.m. Soroco — which sports just a four-deep bench — didn’t get home until about 1:30 a.m. but rebounded nicely Saturday afternoon to improve to 5-1 heading into the winter break.

Soroco coach David Bruner said despite the early morning arrival back home, the friendly confines of the Rams’ home gym helped in the shooting department. And even with a slim bench, Bruner implemented a platoon subbing system all night, eventually wearing down the Burros late. South Park mustered just four points in the third quarter and five in the fourth quarter.

“Conditioning was it,” Bruner said. “They got tired. I kept subbing a lot at a time.”

That’s not to say the Rams were fully healthy themselves for all 32 minutes. Friday night’s late arrival came on the heels of a long week of fighting a team-wide flu, which still lingered among Bruner’s starters and reserves.

“We probably didn’t have one girl who was 100 percent healthy because of the flu and whatnot,” Bruner admitted. “They play hard, though, and they kept going.”

Soroco’s big three of Rossi, DaKota Bruner and Briana Peterson again paced the squad in their single-game record scoring performance. Rossi had a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds. Bruner tacked on 18 more points to go along with six assists and eight rebounds. Peterson scored 13 points — eight in the second half — to go along with her game-high 16 rebounds.

South Park’s Emma Naylor led her team with eight points and four rebounds.

Although the Rams were out-rebounded in the first quarter, Soroco easily finished the deal, grabbing 55 boards to South Park’s 25. Soroco also committed just 11 turnovers and forced the Burros into 28.

“We’re doing some things defensively now that we were not great at doing, like playing man-to-man in the full court,” David Bruner said. “We aren’t great at it, but we do know down the road, we might need to do it to get a stop.”

The Rams have a lengthy winter break before they are back in game action. They’ll host rival Hayden on Jan. 9 and travel to West Grand a day later, both league games.

To reach Ben Ingersoll, call 970-871-4204, email bingersoll@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @BenMIngersoll