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‘Horns roll over Rams

Joelle MilholmGlenwood Springs correspondent
Paul Conrad/The Aspen Times
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Aspen, CO ColoradoBASALT – A fast-breaking offense backed by strong post play pushed Basalt’s girls past rival Roaring Fork in the Rams’ 3A Western Slope basketball opener Tuesday night.The Longhorns (3-2, 1-0 Western Slope) pulled away with a 21-0 stretch spanning from the end of the second quarter through most of the third quarter for a 58-46 win. Feeding off the Rams’ missed shots and turnovers, Basalt kept on scoring while Roaring Fork (4-3, 1-1 WSL) just kept on missing. “We missed a lot of easy shots, but Basalt’s good,” said Roaring Fork head coach Kirk Cheney. “We just couldn’t get in the ball in the hole. We got out of offensive rotation and quit doing the things we know how to do.”

Center Cassie Meyer led the Longhorns’ charge. The 5-foot-10 senior dominated the paint, scoring 19 points and pulling down eight rebounds. She also recorded two steals, one assist and one block. Meyer’s performance impressed Cheney.”Cassie Meyer – I haven’t seen a girl that brings as much desire to the court as she does,” he said. “There was one play where she rebounded on one end and finished the fast break on the other end – Not many posts can do that.”Both nervous rivals combined for 11 turnovers in the first three minutes. After Roaring Fork took a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter, Basalt took control.

“We started a little rough. The girls are always so amped up to play Roaring Fork, but we came out in the third quarter and just flat out played Longhorn basketball,” Basalt head coach Carolyn Compton said. “It wasn’t a great game – we just had periods of greatness, and that’s how we need to come out and play every single quarter.”While the ice-cold Rams tried to get shots to fall, Basalt’s shots had no trouble finding the bottom of the net. Eight Longhorns scored in the game as Katherine Fitzpatrick dropped in eight, and Emily Peetz added seven to go along with five rebounds and four steals. Amy Lund totaled six points.Heather Seabald led Roaring Fork in scoring with 12 points, Nikki Smeins added eight, and Celeste Commings, who totaled five steals, five assists and four rebounds, scored six on two first-half 3-pointers.



The Rams finally got going late in the fourth quarter to end the game with back-to-back fast-break layups that started with a Commings pass and a Taylor Wagner finish. “We played hard – I gotta give them that,” Cheney said. “They didn’t quit.”Both teams will now take a break from games for the holidays until Roaring Fork hosts Olathe on Jan. 5 and the Longhorns travel to Cedaredge on Jan. 6.