Conference matchups dominate our list of top games in girls’ basketball for Thursday. In four of our five picks, first place teams get pushed by a team just one game back in the early standings. The fifth choice is a nice non-conference game featuring a couple of teams hoping to at least reach the regional tournament round.
1A – Shining Mountain at Belleview Christian: Even though the two teams have played just one combined league game, there’s a good argument that this game will determine the 5280 championship. Belleview Christian (10-2) has the best overall record of league members with Shining Mountain (9-2) a very close second. The Lions are also coming off a tough road win at #7 Lone Star (41-38) earlier this week.
1A – Cheraw at Wiley: Nice non-league pairing of two clubs that are trying to gain a quality win ahead of a league schedule push. Cheraw (5-5) is battling McClave and Kit Carson for the High Plains championship while Wiley (6-3) wants to push South Baca and Springfield in the Ark Valley chase. RPI wise, the game is more important to Cheraw as they sit #30 compared to #13 for Wiley. The districts for the two teams will also square off in regionals so this could be a future post-season battle as well.
2A – Plateau Valley at Paonia: Six teams are within one game of the Western Slope lead and these are two of them. Plateau Valley (2-0) shares first place with Hotchkiss and Meeker (both 4-0) while Paonia joins Soroco and DeBeque one game off the pace (2-1). Plateau Valley has two league wins by a combined six points as they edged Vail Christian in overtime and Rangely by two points the last two weeks. Madison Clark (14.0), Maddisyn Miller (12.9) and Cahlea Dennison (10.1) all average double figures for the Cowboys. Paonia lost to Hayden last Friday but recovered with a nice win over at West Grand the next night. Ceylon Carter (8.8) is the Eagles leading scorer and tops a list of 10 players scoring at least two per game.
3A – Liberty Common at Estes Park: Liberty Common (2-0) shares the Patriot lead with University (3-0) but this is their first real league test as Estes Park is one of our teams at 2-1 and one game out of first. Both teams have wins over Strasburg and Frontier Academy. Liberty Common beat Strasburg by 26 points and Estes Park 14. The Bobcats downed Frontier Academy by 13 and the Eagles 22. Liberty Common has won four straight and Estes Park seven of their last nine.
4A – Weld Central at Riverdale Ridge: Skyview is favored to win another Colorado 8 championship but the Rebels and Ravens are the top two challengers. Weld Central lost to Skyview (47-37) last week so they cannot afford another early loss. Riverdale Ridge opened their league slate by beating Englewood 43-38 on the road. Sienna Mullen scored nine points and Lynea Lucero and Kyle Bach eight apiece as the Ravens collected a fifth straight win. Kaydee Sims (18.3) and Sydnie Pevler (10.8) lead Weld Central offensively.
