Having entered the winter girls basketball season just 40 points shy of 1,000 for her career, Flatirons Academy senior Emma Cox was bound to hit that benchmark early on, and she in fact did, Dec. 2 against Strasburg. Since then, she’s simply been relentless, and now, scoring even 1,500 career points isn’t out of the question.
With a 36-point game against Front Range Baptist — in which she hit 14 of 17 shots from the floor — last week, Cox now has three 30-point games this season and is up to 1,177 for her career. After posting 15 points in three straight games, her past three outings have seen her score 34, 36 and 29 points, the latest coming in a big win against 7-3 Evangel Christian Academy.
The Bison (8-1) still have 10 games on the regular-season schedule, and a lengthy playoff run is certainly expected in their camp. Cox’s scoring prowess will go a long way towards those goals. At her current average of 24 points a game, she would eclipse 1,400 points by the time playoffs rolled around.
Six-pack
If there’s one team that is looking to stop Cox right in her tracks, it’s the red-hot Rocky Mountain Lutheran Eagles, who have won six straight games after starting the season 0-2. The Eagles did have a Tuesday game scheduled against Victory Prep Academy (the status of that game was unknown at the time of publication), but RML also has a Thursday date with Flatirons as Class 1A 5280 League play gets rolling.
Rocky Mountain Lutheran defeated Loveland Classical, another up-and-coming team seated toward the top third of the 2A CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index, last Thursday. Ginny Shade scored 18 points in the win.
A new challenger
The 3A Patriot League will be a gauntlet this season, and Timnath is one team looking forward to being right in the thick of the race in just their second year of existence on the varsity level. With a 9-3 mark this year and two of those losses coming against tough teams in higher classifications, the Cubs have proven their mettle so far.
Last week, the Cubs managed to top 50 points against 6A Rocky Mountain (6-3), and they only trailed the Lobos by 12 points entering the fourth quarter. Timnath rebounded to defeat Valley (5-5) a couple days later.
No roster mirrors their name better than the Cubs — Timnath has no seniors and just one junior on the squad. Sophomores Tiana Guzman and Gretchen Deines are carrying scoring averages of better than 12 points a game, and freshman Olivia Zadeh is sitting at 8.8 ppg.
Quiet rise
Hoehne has risen to fourth in the 2A Selection & Seeding Index, thanks to a modest four-game win streak that stretched the holiday break. The Farmers cultivated a 48-38 win last week at Fowler (6-5) with a balanced scoring effort that included at least seven points from five players to get the big win.
At 7-2, Hoehne is hoping for an easier path in regionals than a year ago, when it was forced to play at No. 1 seed Merino as the 16 seed in the tournament.
Streakin’
There are 18 small-school teams currently riding win streaks of at least four games. The teams: McClave (9), Grand Valley (8), Merino (8), Colorado Springs Christian (7), Peyton (7), West Grand (6), Rocky Mountain Lutheran (6), Trinidad (5), Flatirons Academy (5), Limon (5), Jefferson (4), Burlington (4), Sargent (4), Dayspring Christian (4), Hoehne (4), Rangely (4), Idalia (4) and Dove Creek (4).
