Ladies stomp Plateau Valley 67-22

MEEKER I Meeker High School’s girls’ basketball earned another big win to extend their record to 11-1 on Saturday, Jan. 26. The lady Cowboys are ranked No. 8 in the state with their only loss of the season to the No. 7 ranked team, Paonia.
Two minutes had ticked away in Saturday’s game against the Plateau Valley Cowboys with double goose eggs on the scoreboard. Piper Haney broke the ice for Meeker when she sank a foul shot. Then Kaysyn Chintala drained a three-pointer, but Meeker still had trouble finding the bucket. Meeker led 4-2 until the halfway point of the quarter when Deena Norell stepped to the line for one more point and on the next two trips down the court Chintala dished in two more three-pointers. The lady Cowboys found their rhythm when their wicked full court press went to work. Plateau Valley would not make another bucket in the quarter. Meeker closed out with Katie Dinwiddie hitting a jumper, Sydney Hughes and Norell both snagging a loose ball and dishing it to Chintala who made two uncontested layups, 18-2.
Meeker fell to their half-court trap defense in the second quarter and Plateau Valley managed to sneak in seven points, but Meeker continued to find the rim. Taylor Neilson found her hot spot and drained three buckets, Haney hit a shot and Hughes made a layup, 30-9 Meeker.
After halftime the lady Cowboys continued to shoot well and capitalized off of their ferocious defense.
Chintala led the 67-22 victory with a career and season high of 22 points with five three-point buckets. Neilson was right behind her with 18; Haney, Hughes and Amanda Kendall all pitched in seven; while Dinwiddie and Norell both added three.
Head coach Greg Chintala is “very pleased with the way the team is seeing the court” and feels that they are all “distributing the ball well.” With the team shooting over 50 percent over the weekend he finds that their incredible defensive play is “starting to meld together with a strong offense.”
Meeker has a big week ahead as they played the Grand Junction junior varsity team Tuesday night. The team will travel to Soroco Friday, Feb. 1 and host the Hayden Tigers on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Soroco is running 9-3 on their season and Meeker has dominated Hayden in two matches already this season.
Meeker’s C team hit the court Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday and shook some of the cobwebs out while the JV team added two more wins to their season over the Sailors in Steamboat and the Plateau Valley JV.