RHS girls’ teams end up as consolation champs

RANGELY I With the 2012-2013 school year just ending, many Rio Blanco County teams are using the offseason to prepare for next year, including the Rangely Junior/Senior High School girls’ basketball program, which hosted a tournament Friday and Saturday.
Eight high school teams and five middle school teams played four games each on Friday then played in a double-elimination tournament Saturday. Both Rangely’s middle and high school teams finished as consolation champions.
“We got off to a rocky start Friday, trying to figure each other out and we really struggled on both ends of the floor, as none of these girls had played together before,” head coach Quinton Kent said.
“As a coach, I too had to figure out how to best utilize this group, having only one player (Aimee Hogan) with significant varsity experience.
“We figured out a good rotation and started using a pressure defense toward the end of our first tournament game against Altamont (Utah) and even though we lost that game it gave us the momentum we needed going into the game against Hayden,” he said.
The game against Hayden was an elimination game, and Kent said it was “close the whole game.”
“We played solid defense, made a few more plays then them and held on for a four-point win,” he said.
Duchesne, Utah, entered two teams and Rangely would play Duchesne II in the consolation championship game.
“We again applied a lot of pressure and forced them to take a lot of outside shots,” Kent said. “We slowly wore them down in what was a close game in the first half and most of the second, until we pulled away for a 12-point win.”
Rangely’s middle school team, which was missing several players, played well, according to Kent, losing in the semis but coming back to finish as consolation champs.
“I was proud of our resilience, especially after losing the first game,” Kent said. “We improved each game and figured some things out to finish on a good note in those last two games.”
The Lady Panthers will play in a tournament in Glenwood Springs on June 14-15 and then at Weber State University on June 21-22.