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Battle Mountain tops Summit behind big plays

EDWARDS — And one. And the Huskies did it twice.

Battle Mountain girls basketball’s Elizabeth Olivas and Taylor Davidson had back-to-back 3-point plays as the Huskies knocked off Summit County, 45-38, on Tuesday night in Edwards for their first 4A Slope win of the season.

“There was like a moment, ‘Woah, we really did it,’” Olivas said. “After (Taylor) got the second one, ‘We are actually doing this.’”



Olivas, who led all scorers with 16 points, was playing with four fouls at the time, so hers was clutch. As for Davidson’s 3-point play, the Huskies staff drew it up and the team executed it to perfection.

“I was telling the girls earlier that all we had to do was get the lid off that first conference win,” Battle Mountain coach Vinny Cisneros said. “Now it’s all about getting a little snowball effect going. It’s really more our attitude and our confidence. Now, hopefully, everything will fall into place.”

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Good game plan

This one did not come easily, however, for the Huskies (4-6 overall and 1-4 in the Slope). The Tigers (2-5, 0-4) trailed by as many as 12 points and cut that margin to four twice at 36-32 and 38-34 before Olivas and Davidson struck.

“When we slowed things down, we got what we were looking for,” Summit coach Dylan Hollingsworth said. “I thought we had a good game plan. We just couldn’t finish it. We started running around at the end.”

Hollingsworth had three keys to the game — rebounding, turnovers and free throws. Battle Mountain won the first two, while both teams played to a draw on the third. Neither side was happy with their freebies, although the Tigers’ Kayce Chaparas had a good night there on her way to a team-high nine points.

While the Tigers did have their second-highest offensive output of the season, the Huskies accomplished one of their biggest goals — starting fast. In its previous outing at Rifle last weekend, the Huskies lost, 52-37, and were outscored in the first quarter 19-6 by the Bears. Do the math.

“I think we had a rude wakeup call, coming out of Rifle,” Cisneros said. “We competed in that game so well, except for how we started out. That was the big difference tonight, coming out a lot stronger and not as flat and playing all four quarters with a little lack of free-throw shooting.”

Summit wraps a five-game road odyssey with stops at South Park on Friday and Delta on Saturday, while the Huskies are at Steamboat Springs on Saturday.

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


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