The Lower Platte league takes center stage in 2A boys this week as pre-season favorites Yuma and Wray collide on Friday. The winner will become the favorite to land the league championship and earn the number one seed for the district tournament.
They’ve already played once this season with Yuma scoring a 49-40 win on December 7th. The Indians earned 16 points from Clay Robinson and 5 from Chase McCreath in the win. Wray did not get a player to double figures but Samuel Uyemura finished with nine with Junior Arambula, Jaden Dodsworth and Justin Pecar all ending up with eight. Rebounds were basically even with Wray collecting nine steals and Yuma seven.
Since that game, Yuma has won five of six with a lone loss to Colby KS at the Goodland Topside Tournament. Robinson leads the team with 15.8 points and is second in rebounds with 7.8 per night. McCreath leads in rebounds (8.2) and is second in scoring (14.0). Seniors Roland Caraveo (6.8) and Jonathan Rascon (5.3) provide offensive support.
Wray is 4-3 since the first meeting with all three losses also coming to out of state teams. The Eagles are coming off an exciting and wild 73-65 win over Burlington earlier this week. Wray made six threes and Burlington seven.
On the season, Pecar averages a double-double with 17.8 points and 10.1 rebounds. Uyemura is next with 13.5 points and Arambula scores 11.6 points per game with almost six rebounds. More offense for a team averaging 67 points per game comes from the likes of Bryant Schoenthal (8.4), Dodsworth (6.0) and Dane Srsen (5.9).
Friday’s game is the league opener for Wray. Yuma is 1-0 after beating Akron 56-32 on the road last Friday.
A second game of note inside the Lower Platte this week has Wiggins (5-4) on the road to Sedgwick County (7-0). The Cougars, who finally cracked the top 10 rankings this week, has their conference win over Haxtun. Wiggins will be competing in their league opener.
The Tigers have already matched the win total of last year and they continue to build on a program that had just 14 victories in the four years leading up to this season. They had won four straight before a tight loss to 3A Strasburg (54-51) last week. They have a tough start to league play as next up is a road trip to Yuma.
Sedgwick County has three wins vs Nebraska schools and three against 1A schools so they’ve played just one 2A school. Since they don’t face Yuma until February 1st and Wray until the 8th, the Cougars have a good chance to be in title position when they face those two clubs. Leaders of the team include Tate Dille, Terance Heath and Gavin Thode.
Another good race is brewing in the Santa Fe league where Fowler, Crowley County and Hoehne all remain unbeaten through the first third of the league schedule. Of those three, Crowley County (6-2) has the most difficult test on tap this week as they host Holly (7-2) on Saturday.
The Wildcats sit in fourth place following a road loss to Fowler (66-49) last week. That game was only a four point spread going to the fourth before Fowler went on a 26-13 run in the final eight minutes. Because of that loss, Holly must win on Saturday to remain just one game back of the league leaders.
Crowley County has conference wins over Las Animas, Swallows Charter, John Mall and Rocky Ford so this will be their first game against teams near the top of the standings. They also play Swink on the road the night before and should get another win there.
Despite the early logjam, Fowler remains favored to land the championship. They will not Holly again in regular season play and has just one meeting with Crowley County (Feb 14th). They do play Hoehne twice on the 31st and February 13th.
The Grzzlies picked up 18 points from Gabe Proctor in their win over Holly. Val Leone and Johnathon Mobbley both earned double-doubles as well. They go to Swallows Charter on Friday and Rocky Ford on Saturday.
Hoehne is getting 16 points a game from Nic Navarette. They meet John Mall and Rye this Friday and Saturday and face a key stretch next week with games against both Holly and Crowley County.
There are also at least two games of interest from the Southern Peaks and both involve Crested Butte. The Titans are off a to 6-1 start but we’ll find out more about them as they face both Del Norte (Friday) and Sanford (Saturday) this week. Results from those games will let us know if the Titans can push for a regional tournament berth later this season.
Crested Butte has not played an overly strong schedule but they’ve won four straight since a 30-point loss to 1A Ouray. Included in that stretch are wins over 2A Telluride and Ridgway. Stats are not posted but the TItans feature three senior captains in Carlos Franco, Ethan Baccani and Murphy Smith.
Sanford (5-3) struggled with consistency before Christmas but is 2-0 since the break including a very impressive 51-37 win over 3A Pagosa Springs last week. It was their fourth win in five games.
Del Norte is coming off a 73-60 loss to Sangre De Cristo but is probably much better than their 2-5 record indicates. A young team that leans heavily on junior Logan Cestone on the offensive end. Also seeing more time as the season wears on is freshman guard Ben Parra. The younger brother of former Tiger standout Carlos Parra needs to get a bit bigger and stronger but you can easily see how well he understands the game.
The Tigers also have an important game with Center on Saturday. The Vikings go into the game looking to snap a recent slide where they’ve split the last four games. They lost a tough one at Mancos last week and then were handled by Monte Vista (56-33) earlier this week. They still expect to contend for the Southern Peaks league championship.
Byers is another club with a tough back-to-back this weekend. The Bulldogs meet Genoa Hugo in a key Union Pacific game on Friday and then have local rival Strasburg on tap the next night. They enter the game with Genoa Hugo 1-0 in early Union Pacific play and need a win to keep pace with Limon atop the standings. Byers goes to Limon on February 14th.
Following an 0-2 start, the Bulldogs have won five of six and that has coincided with the return of Zaine Mikita. The returning senior has played in just six games this year but leads the team with 14.8 points a game. He’s also second in rebounds with 6.6. Caden Eymann is a second double figure scorer (11.1) and adds over five rebounds. More solid play comes from Ty Miller with nearly nine points and 10 rebounds per game.
Genoa Hugo is 4-1 against 1A schools and will be a solid threat to a state tournament berth on that level but they’ve struggled against 2A clubs including losses to Limon and Peyton last week. Because of that loss to Limon, the Pirates need a win against Byers to remain in the Union Pacific chase. Wyatt Miller (11.6) and Triston Lindt (10.6) are two double figure scorers for the Pirates.
Strasburg moved to 6-2 with their 85-37 blowout of Liberty Common this week. It was their third win in four games. Most of their offense comes from a foursome that includes Daniel Alvardo (14.7), Trystan Graf (13.4), Collin Russell (12.1) and Mitchell Davis (11.9). Alvardo, a 6-4 junior, also adds 11.7 rebounds and has produced three double-doubles on the season including 14 and 17 in another rivalry game with Bennett.
