Arvada West girls basketball get bounce-back road victory over Columbine

LITTLETON — Arvada West girls basketball got a much-needed victory in Class 6A Jeffco League play Tuesday night.

A-West avoided falling below .500 in conference play by grabbing a 59-49 win over Columbine to start the second go-around in 6A Jeffco. The Wildcats (14-3, 4-3 in league) were coming off a rough 15-point loss Saturday to rival Ralston Valley on A-West’s home court.

“I’m glad we moved on from that game,” A-West junior Macie Ferguson said of the loss to Ralston Valley that likely put a chance at a league title out of reach. “We were able to flush it and get back on track.”

A-West faced a road test Tuesday against Columbine (16-2, 5-2), who defeated A-West on a last-second shot in their first conference meeting three weeks ago.

“The hope is this was kind of redemption. This was one and now we have another one,” A-West coach Brady Meeks said of splitting the season-series with Columbine and now facing Valor Christian coming up Thursday. “The goal was to get back to 1-0 tonight after, honestly, Saturday’s — lack of a better word — disaster.”

Columbine came in on a 5-game winning streak, but the Rebels weren’t 100 percent. Senior Kortny Brock (12.9 points, 5 rebounds, 4.4 steals and 3.8 assists per game) was out due to an illness. Senior Mason Abraham played, but was playing with a large brace on her left leg after suffering a knee injury in Columbine’s win over Chatfield last Friday.

“Kudos to (Columbine) for how they competed. Other girls stepped up,” Meeks said of the Rebels being short-handed without Brock and Abraham fighting through the knee injury.

Columbine senior Jordyn Washington led the Rebels with 18 points, including 10 points in the first quarter. Freshman Kaylee Yoder came off the bench to score a career-high 17 points.

However, the Rebels trailed the majority of the game and Columbine’s lead grew to as many as 19 points early in the fourth quarter.

“Columbine is a very talented team and they battle,” Ferguson said. “We wanted it more tonight and we fought for it. We played hard and I’m proud of our girls for fighting through it.”

A-West had eight different players score. Sophomore Emerson Drake had a team-high 15 points, but only scored 1 point in the second half. Drake was the only Wildcat in double-digits.

Ferguson and freshman Brooklyn Meurer had 9 points each. Seniors Santana Pena (8 points) and Aubri Cespedes (7 points) both had solid overall games.

“Everyone on our team contributed to the best of their ability tonight,” Ferguson said. “I think we just fought and played team basketball tonight.”

Meeks pointed to Pena on helping the Wildcats get the big road victory.

“She (Pena) is so important to us and nobody really realizes it because they are probably stat watchers,” Meeks said of his senior guard. “We need her to be aggressive and tonight she was aggressive and what I would call, ‘Old Tana’. I think that was the reason why we had a good start tonight.”

The Wildcats dominated on the boards getting a handful of second chance points and limiting Columbine to second chances offensively.

“We have honestly been a bad rebounding team this year. It was a bit of a question mark for us going into the season,” Meeks admitted. “I felt like it was an issue, but tonight we hit the boards. If we aren’t shooting well we need those second chances.”

The Rebels made a run in the fourth quarter cutting A-West’s lead to 55-45 with 2:30 minutes to play, but the Wildcats were able to take care of the ball to close out the win.

“It was not pretty at the end. It looked like we were gripping at the end,” Meeks said of A-West scoring just 7 points in the fourth quarter. “This is good for us because there are going to be other times that it’s going to hit us.”

A-West will attempt to hit back against Valor (13-3, 7-0) on Thursday, Feb. 5. The Wildcats host the Eagles at 7 p.m. Valor dominated Bear Creek on Tuesday night to the tune of 78-27. The Eagles extended its league winning streak to 33 games dating back to the 2022-23 season.

The last Jeffco team to defeat Valor was actually A-West over three years ago back on Feb. 1, 2023.

Valor has a 2-game lead over Columbine and Ralston Valley in the conference standing. The Eagles could wrap up its eighth consecutive Jeffco League title with win victories over A-West, Columbine and Ralston Valley over the next seven days.