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Bears roll past Huskies

Chris Freud

EAGLE-VAIL – Before the Rifle Battle Mountain girls basketball game, Huskies boosters passed out paws.Unfortunately, the Bears’ claws were to much for the Huskies’ paws as Rifle breezed, 72-42.”We went 16-for-60 (from the field), so we were chucking the ball up,” Huskies coach David Hite said. “We weren’t shooting the ball. It was just mental mistakes, a lot of them. Defensively, we just weren’t talking, not being aggressive on defense. We got beat by a better team.”Rifle took advantage of Battle Mountain’s tendency to start slowly, grabbing a 17-9 first-quarter lead. A mini 5-2 Huskies run Brought Battle Mountain to within 19-15 to start the second quarter. The Bears scored 12 of the next 16 points to end the half with a 31-19 lead, which would only grow in the second half.Rifle’s Renee Laudick led all scorers with 17. Kristin Neffendorf had 15 for the Bears. Kendall Babler put in 13 and Kristin Guettler had 12.For Battle Mountain, Meagan Reigel led the Huskies with 10 points. Alexis Guinn and Lauren Prewitt had eight each.With the loss, the Huskies fell to 5-6 in the Slope and 8-11 overall. Battle Mountain is in dire need of a few wins to revive its playoff hopes. A good starting point would be the team’s game at Glenwood Springs tonight at 6.”It’s a matter of you have to,” Hite said. “It’s a matter of keeping your hope and keeping your dream alive of going on and stepping up to the next level. We talked about it at the beginning of the game. ‘You’ve got to step up right now. You’ve got to compete right now.’ And, we just didn’t do it.”Huskies’ boys forfeitToo much of something in the case of Battle Mountain boys basketball is a bad thing.Huskies athletics director Fred Koetteritz accidentally scheduled 23 games, one above the state limit, for Philip Tronsrue’s team which meant that the Battle Mountain had to forfeit one of its remaining league games.Of the team’s four remaining games, Rifle, Glenwood Springs, Steamboat Springs and Moffat County, one name was drawn out of a hat. The team picked was Rifle, so Friday night’s scheduled game became a forfeit win for the Bears.Earlier in the week, Koetteritz said he took full responsibility for the mistake. With the forfeit loss, the Huskies drop to 14-6 overall and 7-4 in league.Battle Mountain will try to keep its winning ways one the court going with a 7:30 tilt at Glenwood tonight.Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 614 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.Vail Colorado


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