Steamboat Today: Soroco boys basketball sprints past opponents

Archive for Sunday, December 7, 2008

By Luke Graham Sunday, December 7, 2008

Dec. 2, Soroco 73, Moffat County J.V. 53; (1-0, 0-0)
Dec. 5, Soroco 72, Clear Creek 36 at West Grand Tournament; (2-0)
Dec. 6, Soroco 51, West Grand 32 at West Grand Tournament; (3-0)
Dec. 9, Soroco 46, Steamboat J.V. 41; (4-0)
Dec. 13, Soroco 58, Vail Christian 45; (5-0)
Dec. 18, Hayden 63, Soroco 54; (5-1)
4 p.m. Dec. 20 vs. North Park
Jan. 10, Soroco 74, Rangely 71; (7-1)
Jan. 15, Soroco 64, Moffat County J.V. 46; (8-1)
Jan. 16, Soroco58, North Park 21;(9-1)
Jan. 23, Soroco 74, De Beque 59;(10-1)
Jan. 24, Meeker 69, Soroco 54;(10-2)
Jan. 30, Plateau Valley 60, Soroco 44; (10-3)
Feb. 6, Soroco 49, West Grand 30;(11-3)
Feb. 7, Soroco 79, Paonia 66;(12-3)
Feb. 13, Hayden 47, Soroco 42;(13-3)
Feb. 14, Soroco 62, Vail Christian 42;(14-3)
Feb. 21 district play begins
Feb. 27-28 districts at Meeker

Steamboat Springs — For a team looking to establish an early culture of winning, the Soroco High School boys basketball team sure has done a good job through the first two weeks of the season.

After blowing out Moffat County's junior varsity to open the season, Soroco won the West Grand Tournament on Saturday.

Soroco beat Clear Creek, 72-36, on Friday before downing West Grand, 51-32, in the championship game Saturday.

"We're looking at before Christmas break as a preseason leading up to districts," Soroco coach Sam McLeod said. "But every game is vitally important for us."

Against Clear Creek, Soroco used its athleticism to get up and down the court. Cody Miles led the way for the Rams with 22 points. Ryan Tibbetts added 21.

In the championship game, however, West Grand was able to neutralize the up-tempo game of Soroco. But the Rams showed they could work in the halfcourt set.

Tibbetts paced the Rams on Saturday with 29 points, while Miles added 13.

"Against West Grand we played well," McLeod said. "We held the ball a lot and shortened the game. We didn't try to put up a lot of points. I was trying to teach them to play more ball control and run the clock."

McLeod said that could be the key to the Soroco season. There won't be many teams as athletic as the Rams, but Soroco will have to be equally as adept at running halfcourt sets if the team wants to get where it thinks it can.

"I think we have to do a lot better job of running halfcourt sets and taking care of the ball," McLeod said. "In districts, we'll be playing some tight games every night. We've got off to a good start, but we've got a long way to go."

Soroco resumes play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at home against the Steamboat Springs junior varsity.