The Sanford girls basketball team lost two of its first six games last season before going on a tremendous run that brought it all the way to the Class 2A state semifinals. The Mustangs had a good go of it, but clearly they are looking for more.

Sanford begins the 2026 portion of its schedule Saturday at home against Crested Butte, already towing an 8-0 record into play. The Mustangs’ season started with a 38-37 win against Salida — one of the teams they lost to at the beginning of last season — and the girls have been slowly building up the resume ever since.

The veteran roster includes three seniors and five juniors, but there is an infusion of sophomores and freshmen that are contributing to the journey so far. Last year’s second-leading scorer, Claire Crowther, leads the way. No stats have been posted by the club, but they’ve been outscoring teams by an average of 49-24.

A couple of good opponents are on the docket within the next couple of weeks, including Buena Vista (6-1) on Jan. 13 and Centauri (4-2) on Jan. 20. Both of those are home games for SHS.

Other games to watch as teams dive into January play:

Class 3A/2A

Merino at Wiggins, Friday, 6:30 p.m.
These teams will already be playing for a second time this season, and the Tigers will be looking for a much better outcome at home after being blasted by the 2A Rams, 70-45, back on Dec. 20.

Merino (6-0) has posted at least 46 points in every game so far, while 3A Wiggins (6-2) has only allowed two teams to score more than 47 points in its eight games (WHS beat Heritage Christian 56-47 on Dec. 6). It’s been a good start to the campaign for Tenleigh Lorenzini of Wiggins (8.3 points per game, 7.4 rebounds per game), but the Tigers are extremely balanced with all nine players on roster averaging at least 3.1 points.

Yuma at Akron, Friday, 4 p.m. — Both teams come in at 5-2 and each are top-6 in the CHSAA Selection and Seeding Index so far. Yuma has won the past three meetings, but last year’s game was just 39-36 in favor of YHS as Taryn Sheffield posted 15 points. Sheffield is averaging 12 points a game so far this season, with 13 3-point makes to her name already. Akron’s Molly O’Neil is pacing the Rams with a near double-double average (16.5 points, 9.8 rebounds)

Class 1A

Eads at Evangel Christian, Saturday, 4 p.m.
It’s No. 1 hosting No. 4 on Saturday, but both squads will be looking to push through a tough back-to-backs. (The Eagles also play McClave on Friday night, while Evangel Christian visits Custer County). Anna Wollert is back to her old tricks, posting 16.6 points per game with plenty of other good peripheral stats, for Eads. ECA has a trio of top scorers, with Mia Castro (15.2), Reagan Schultz (13.8) and Sadie Caldwell (8.8) accounting for 86% of the team’s scoring prowess.