Six days remain in the regular season and while many conference champions have been crowned, other races remain up for grabs. Colorado Preps looks at each conference race in Class 2A boys basketball and runs through the most important matchups remaining.
BLACK FOREST
Dolores Huerta won the conference title by beating Peyton 49-46 on Friday. The win moved the Scorpions one game up on the Panthers with one game to play so based on the tie-breaker, they’re the league champs regardless of how they fare against Calhan on Friday. Peyton leads Calhan and Thomas MacLaren by one game in the race for second and still has a game remaining with Calhan on Saturday. If Peyton beats Miami Yoder on Friday and Calhan loses to DH Prep on Friday, then the Panthers will wrap up second that night leaving the Saturday contest meaningless to the Panthers.
SANTA FE
The conference is divided into two divisions so the district tournament will be seeded a bit differently. The winners of the East and West divisions will be top two seeds with the second place clubs being placed at three and four. Fowler (West) and Holly (East) have clinched divisional crowns with Hoehne number two in the West. The runner-up spot in the East is still undecided as a Rocky Ford win over Rye on Tuesday will push the Meloneers into a tie with Crowley County. The Chargers have wrapped up their league schedule at 9-4 and split two conference games with Rocky Ford. We are still checking on the tiebreaker in that scenario.
SOUTHERN PEAKS
As we’ve mentioned a couple of times this year, it’s sometimes difficult to get a true read on conference standings. But as we believe right now, Crested Butte will win the conference championship as they have a win and one game lead on second place Sanford. The two teams split two battles this year but game two is the one that counts in the league standings. The Titans close the league slate with Sargent at home on Saturday. Sargent and Sanford also collide on Friday and that game should determine second and third. Both clubs have one league loss to Crested Butte on their resume.
LOWER PLATTE
The top three positions have been determined as Yuma has clinched the championship, Sedgwick County second and Wray third. Yuma has two games left against Holyoke and Haxtun on Thursday-Friday but only the second contest is a conference game. Sedgwick County nailed down second by beating Akron on Friday and Wray has just one league game left at home against Akron on Thursday.
MILE HIGH
Highland grabbed sole possession of the conference lead with their impressive win over Denver Christian on Friday. To officially clinch, the Huskies must beat either Longmont Christian on Tuesday or Lyons on Friday. They’ll be heavily favored in both. Second place remains up for grabs as entering the week, Denver Christian leads Dawson by one game and Dayspring Christian by two. The Thunder play both teams this week; starting with Dawson on Tuesday and then Dayspring Christian on Wednesday. There are plenty of possibilities based on scenarios but the Thunder take a huge step to second with a win on Tuesday night. If that happens, then Dayspring Christian may get to third based on their win over Dawson in mid-January.
SAN JUAN
Ignacio (9-0) and Mancos (8-1) have long ago locked up the top two spots and their rematch this Tuesday will determine if the Bobcats win the title outright or if the two share it. Ignacio won the first game 67-61 but game two is at Mancos. Telluride will end up third.
UNION PACIFIC
Limon’s win over Byers last Friday secured the league championship for the Badgers. That result also moved Burlington into second and left Byers in third. Concerning the district tournament, Limon moved up to #2 in RPI and Denver Christian fell to #6. DC topped the Badgers in the head-to-head so they could be moved ahead of them in the bracket. Spots three through five are also contested with Burlington #22, Clear Creek #23 and Byers #25 in RPI. Through Sunday, Burlington would be #3 with Byers likely bumped ahead of Clear Creek since they beat the Golddiggers very early in the season.
WESTERN SLOPE
Despite a league loss to DeBeque, Vail Christian is alone in first (10-1) by one game over the 1A Dragons. The Saints lead Meeker by two games so they’ve already locked up the top district seed but must still win at Soroco on Friday to win the league championship outright. Meeker (8-3) has clinched third place in the conference and second in the district tournament. Plateau Valley must beat Caprock Academy to finish fourth in the conference and earn the #3 district seed. West Grand and Paonia both share the next position with Paonia having the edge in the tiebreaker.
