Ralston Valley girls basketball completes sweep of rival A-West

ARVADA — Ralston Valley girls basketball used some early 3-pointers to set up the inside knockout blows against Arvada West on Monday night.

The Mustangs took a 58-36 road victory over the Wildcats in the second Class 6A Jeffco League game of the season between the Arvada-area rivals. Sophomore Sammi Madden rained in a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter to open up a 15-8 lead for Ralston Valley.

“It was a good, complete team win,” Ralston Valley coach Amy Bahl said after the season sweep of A-West.

Ralston Valley took a closely contested 48-44 victory back on Jan. 12 on the Mustangs’ home court.

Junior Kailey Townsend dominated the inside Monday night after halftime scoring a dozen of her 14 points in the second half as Ralston Valley (12-6, 4-2 in 6A Jeffco) finished off the 22-point win in style.

“I don’t think it was surprising at all,” Townsend said of the Mustangs controlling the paint. “We knew we could do it from the start. We trusted the process in this game and when you do that anything is possible.”

Madden couldn’t miss in the first quarter. The sophomore draining three 3-pointers to force A-West (11-8, 2-5) to extend its defense and allow more offensive looks on the inside.

“We were driving and girls were creating shots for Sammi. We were passing out and finding her,” Ralston Valley coach Amy Bahl said of the Mustangs’ offense. “I thought Mia (Alfaro) did a good job of creating that offense and then Kailey inside. They were all contributing.”

Madden finished with a dozen points, while freshman phenom Santana Sabus poured in 14 points through the first three quarters. Alfaro added 7 points to give Ralston Valley a second straight conference win as the Mustangs attempt to stay in the top-2 of the 6A Jeffco League standings.

“I think we played more as a team as we ever had,” Townsend said. “All of us contributed in someway.”

A-West’s offense was held in check scoring single-digits in the first three quarters until putting up 14 points in the fourth quarter. Senior Malorie Byrne had a team-high 9 points for the Wildcats.

In the final quarter, Townsend had a pair of 3-point plays, Madden drained her fourth 3-pointer of the game and juniors Callie Schlatter and Kaden Nielsen came off the bench for a couple of last-minute buckets to end the game.

“Learning from our past games, we really need to attack and be aggressive,” Bahl said of Ralston Valley learning to put games away after having some lethargic second-half games. “Don’t ever stall. You have to keep attacking the basket and looking to score.”

Ralston Valley has a busy schedule over the next two weeks to finish off the regular season. Monday started a run of five conference games in 12 days for the Mustangs. Ralston Valley has a rare home/away games versus Lakewood on Wednesday and Friday this week.

“When we get to this point I think it is OK to play more games,” Bahl said of the game-heavy stretch over the next two weeks. “We have worked on all the stuff to get here. Like I told the girls tonight, ‘We just need to trust the process and all the training we’ve done.’ They did a great job of that tonight.”

The Mustangs would likely clinch second-place in the 6A Jeffco League next week when they host Columbine (13-7, 5-2) on Wednesday, Feb. 14.

A-West hosts Chatfield this Wednesday before having a pair of tough road league games next week against Valor Christian and Columbine to close out the regular season.

The postseason is just around the corner with first-round games for the 32-team 6A state tournament scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 20. Before action Monday, Ralston Valley was No. 12 in the CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index. A-West was sitting at No. 27.