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Basalt girls bounce back

Jon Maletz
Paul Conrad/The Aspen Times
Paul Conrad | The Aspen Times

Aspen, CO ColoradoBASALT Saturday’s 63-48 loss at Cedaredge weighed heavily on Basalt head coach Carolyn Compton’s mind as she took the bench Tuesday against Grand Valley.It soon became clear Compton’s players hadn’t forgotten the humbling defeat, either. A determined Longhorns squad pressured the Cardinals on both sides of the ball and opened up a 17-5 lead after one quarter. They continued to roll en route to the 56-23 win.

“We needed this, especially after Saturday,” Compton said. “We weren’t ready to play Saturday, and we were caught off guard. Tonight, things started clicking. We were off and flying.”Senior Katy Mulcahy found some space down low for an easy layup, and Cassie Meyer followed with a putback as the Longhorns opened up an 8-2 edge after 2 1/2 minutes. The duo scored 13 of Basalt’s 17 points in the first quarter. Meyer had just three points Saturday.

The Longhorns’ pressure continued in the second as they used their size advantage to wear down the Grand Valley defense. They went on an 11-0 run, capped by back-to-back buckets by junior Emily Peetz, to take a 25-point lead. Peetz scored from close range in the waning moments of the second to give Basalt the 36-8 halftime advantage.”They’re a good team. They have a lot of the right pieces,” Cardinals coach Mike Johnson said. “They did some things that exposed us. Their speed was overbearing, and their defense got in the passing lanes. It was tough to run our offense.”



Basalt’s defense held Grand Valley without a basket for the first 6:40 of the third quarter. In the meantime, the Longhorns continued to pound the ball down low and opened the quarter on a 13-0 run. They scored just five points in the fourth quarter but still won by 33. The Cardinals’ lone bright spot was sophomore Kasi Jensen’s half-court shot at the buzzer.”I hope this is a gut check,” Johnson said. “We talked about looking in the mirror and asking yourselves what you can fix individually. There’s a lot you can learn from a loss like this.”