MEEKER I With only one game left in the regular season, the Meeker High School girls’ basketball team will finish as the No. 4 seed in the league. The girls will play in Oak Creek on Tuesday to determine if they will advance to the district tournament.
The Meeker girls played and lost to Vail Christian at home and beat Caprock Academy in Grand Junction last week. Meeker played Hotchkiss yesterday after press time and will host Plateau Valley on Friday.
“Vail Christian is a good squad with a bunch of seniors on their team,” Meeker head coach Greg Chintala said of the 39-50 loss. “We had a few chances, but we had too many turnovers and missed shots.”
Meeker fell behind by six at the end of the first quarter and trailed by eight at halftime. The lady Cowboys scored eight in the third quarter and 14 in the final quarter, but it was not enough.
“We played aggressively and with intensity,” coach Chintala said.
Halle Ahrens led the team with nine points and five rebounds while freshman Megan Shelton added eight points and senior Jenna Walsh added seven. Maggie Phelan finished with five, Kassie Luce scored four, Sierra Williams had three, Krissie Luce had two and Kenzie Turner added a free throw.
The game was different against the Caprock Academy Eagles in Grand Junction, where Meeker jumped out to a 13-3 at the end of the first quarter and led by 12 at halftime.
“We jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter then backed off a little bit to work on different sets,” coach Chintala said. “We executed better and, hopefully, we can execute better in upcoming games.”
Shelton led the team with 20 points and nine rebounds. Peyton Burke scored nine, Ahrens and Phelan each added six points and Jenna Walsh scored four. Williams and Anna Walsh each scored a basket.
Meeker will play in Oak Creek on Tuesday against the Soroco Rams in a must-win contest or the season is over game.
“If we execute, who knows what can happen?” coach Chintala said.
