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Battle Mountain sweeps past Summit in makeup

EDWARDS — Battle Mountain boys basketball seems on track to lead the 4A Western Slope in the little-known category of inducing heart attacks, but, hey, go with it.

The Huskies moved to 2-0 in the league with a 71-62 win over Summit County on Friday night, a reschedule from Thursday’s snowout.

It was a little sloppy, but that was completely understandable, given that both teams hadn’t practiced the last two days given the storm.



“It was a difficult game. (Summit) played well. They did a lot of good things,” said Huskies coach Phil Tronsrue, who certainly knows the Tigers well. “They ran a lot of good sets. We were lethargic. We made some nice adjustments at halftime and decided we were going to try to play some basketball.”

Battle Mountain (5-4) led just 51-49 after three quarters and then was able to get enough contributions from all quarters to eke out the win. Yes, Devin Huffman went off to the tune of 29 points, but there were lots of other contributors to this one, a must if the Huskies hope to contend this season.

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Robert Redinger started the fourth quarter with consecutive buckets. After a Huffman putback, Creek Kamby put the Huskies up 59-54 with 3:50 left in the game. Luis Mendoza and Huffman played a little give-and-go with the former finishing that sequence.

Up 64-57, the Huskies were still figuring out how to close out a game. Their possessions during the final two minutes were not the calm, time-consuming ones for which one would hope.

But Battle Mountain was 10-for-12 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. That included an intentional foul on the Huskies’ Baker Gentry. Once scraped off the floor, the kid nicely knocked down both of his freebies.

Huskies girls rally for win

Call it the comeback of the year.

OK, it was only six days into 2017, but Battle Mountain girls basketball overcame an 11-point, second-quarter deficit to beat Summit County, 39-37, on Friday night.

While one can joke about the calendar, the Huskies (6-1 overall and 1-1 in the 4A Slope) don’t often come back from a 23-12 margin like they faced on Friday. It helps when Monique Stevens goes off for eight points, including two 3s, during the final four minutes of the period, accompanied by a pair of buckets by Skye Whitney.

Trailing just 23-22 at the half, Battle Mountain raced out to a 36-30 lead with 5:18 left in the game. The Huskies did struggle to put the game away with the Tigers’ Kate Tomlinson hitting a 3 with 48 seconds left to put her team within one at 38-37.

With 25.1 seconds, Dylan Barker hit a key free throw. On Summit’s two ensuing possessions, Claire Krueger came up with the ball and the Huskies were in the win column in league play.

The Huskies featured balanced scoring as Krueger had 12, and both Dylan Barker and Stevens finished with 10.

Both teams resume play on Tuesday. The Huskies head north to Steamboat Springs, while Summit County hosts Eagle Valley.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 and cfreud@vaildaily.com.


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