MEEKER I The Meeker High School girls’ basketball team traveled to Cedaredge, where they met their match against the undefeated Bruins, losing 60-48.
Meeker will host Hayden tonight in a non-league game, then travel to Paonia on Friday for an important league contest against the Eagles.
“Against Cedaredge, we played with great attitude, effort and energy,” Meeker girls’ head coach Greg Chintala said of the game between the two state-ranked teams. “We had a couple short dry spells through the course of the game, otherwise I was very pleased with the way we played. We shot OK, we rebounded well and we didn’t turn the ball over too much.”
Meeker trailed 13-8 at the end of the first quarter, then scored 13 in the second but were down by seven at halftime. The Bruins put the game away in the third quarter, outscoring the lady Cowboys 17-11.
“Cedaredge is 14-0 for a reason,” coach Chintala said. “They are a very good team that shoots well and plays very good defense. If we play them again, we would need to put together a complete game to have a good shot of beating them.”
Cedaredge currently leads the league and is ranked as the No. 5 team in 2A by Maxpreps.com, while Meeker is tied with Vail Christian for third in the league with 5-2 league records and ranked No. 7 in the state.
Eight girls scored for Meeker in the game against the Bruins, led by Sydney Hughes’ 22 points and eight rebounds. Jenna Walsh added seven, Jamie McLaughlin, Meagan Parker and Halle Ahrens all scored four points each. Ahrens also pulled down six rebounds. Reece Pertile added three points and five rebounds while Maggie Phelan and Anna Walsh each made a basket.
Meeker will host Hayden tonight and play in Paonia on Friday, which coach Chintala said will have seeding consequences.
“The Paonia game will be an important game for seeding in the district tournament,” he said. “Overall, I am very please with the direction we are going. We are competitive each game and the girls are not afraid to work hard and sweat. What a great group of girls to work with.”
