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Glenwood Springs gets hot hands on offense

Ian CroppVail, CO Colorado

GYPSUM, Colorado – When you have that much speed, you don’t need all four quarters.The Glenwood Springs girls basketball team built an early lead against Eagle Valley on Tuesday night in Gypsum, and went to its bench often in a 67-48 win. “This was a good time to get everyone some playing time,” Glenwood coach Bryan Derby said. “You know, the starters, our seven (regulars) came in and wanted to win. They got it done. It’s always nice to get them a little rest.” The Demons’ Kelsi Hert had 13 of her 21 points in the first quarter, and Glenwood jumped out to a 26-8 lead thanks to a tough press and quick passing.”We came out and we wanted to press,” Derby said. “The first quarter we opened it up pretty wide. We started getting some more steals.” Eagle Valley had some trouble guarding Glenwood guards Katrina and Sharaya Selsor, who used their speed and soft touch to pick up a combined 37 points.”Those two sisters can shoot the rock,” said Eagle Valley coach Ken Reagan. And that Hert girl can really get up and down the court. It’s tough to guard them, especially with the girls we have – we have big post players.” The Devils shifted their lineup to match the Demons’ speed and found some success later in the game.”We have some girls who run track and are really fast, and when I got them in there, they were running with (Glenwood),” Reagan said. After heading into the half trailing 40-18, the Devils came out with some offensive spark in the second half.”I kind of put a little goal up there for 40 (points), because I look at Moffat County and they didn’t score 40 (against Glenwood) Rifle didn’t score 40, so I said we had to score 40 against them whether it was their first team or not,” Reagan said. “You have to put those little goals out there, especially against a good team like Glenwood.” Jeanette Baker, who often beat several Demon defenders while driving the line, had a team-high 13 points, along with six boards and five assists.”She’s the best player on our team, so we have to do that if we’re going to be scoring any points,” Reagan said. Eagle Valley did a great job of spreading out the scoring, with Emily Kingston netting a career-high 10 points.”At the end, we were playing really well,” said Kingston, who had a team-high five steals. “We were pumped up and the best came out of all of us.” Miranda Aragon dropped three trey’s for the Devils, while Jackie Eberhard tried for a double-double, scoring nine points and securing a team-high eight boards.”Miranda has really been working on her 3-pointers, and she was 3-for-5, so it paid off,” Reagan said. Sharaya Selsor had a game-high 24 points, while the Selsor sisters and Hert combined for 14 steals.With the loss, Eagle Valley falls to 1-2 in the 4A Western Slope, while Glenwood moves to 4-0.Demons storm the boards GYPSUM – Defensive rebounds can lead to fast breaks, but it’s the offensive one’s that make for easy points.The Glenwood Springs boys basketball team had a golden night on the glass, picking up 19 offensive boards en route to a 73-52 win over Eagle Valley in Gypsum Tuesday night. “Yeah, the boys crashed the boards well,” said Glenwood coach Greg Hire.And the Demons shot pretty well, too.”Offensive rebounds killed us,” Eagle Valley coach Pat Gabriel said. “(Glenwood) shot almost 50 percent, so on half of (the rebounds), they scored.” The Demons, who saw 10 of their 11 players score, took advantage of Eagle Valley turnovers to score in transition.”We’re not careful with the basketball,” Gabriel said. “We turned the ball over 21 times. We have to cut that in half. We are giving them 19 extra shots and the ball 21 times on top of that. It’s hard to beat them, and they are good on top of that.” Glenwood scored from all over the court – from beyond the arc to down low.”We were working on some new offense and did a good job staying focused on that,” Hire said.Eagle Valley’s Scott House led all scorers with 22 points, and picked up a game-high 14 rebounds, 11 of which came in the second half. “He had every one of our defensive rebounds in the second half,” Gabriel said. “That’s tough to do.”Cesar Castillo picked up 19 points for the Devils, cashing in on several fast breaks and also driving hard to the lane with a few defenders in tow. Zach Ramsay scored six for Eagle Valley and had a game-high six blocks, with four of those rejections coming in the second half. With the loss, the Devils fall to 1-2 in the 4A Western Slope.”I think we’re getting better. We still have a lot of work,” Gabriel said.Sports Writer Ian Cropp can be reached at icropp@vaildaily.com or 748-2935.


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