Steamboat Today: Rams girls off the mark in loss to Panthers

Archive for Sunday, January 11, 2009

By Joel Reichenberger Sunday, January 11, 2009

7:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at Moffat County JV
Dec. 5, Soroco 65, Clear Creek 24 at West Grand Tournament; (2-0)
Dec. 6, West Grand 47, Soroco 27 at West Grand Tournament; (2-1)
Dec. 9, Soroco 58, Steamboat JV 38; (3-1)
Dec. 12, Hayden 73, Soroco 42; (3-2)
Dec. 13, Soroco 51, Vail Christian 37; (4-2)
Dec. 20 North Park 53, Soroco 46; (4-3)
Jan. 10, Rangely 63, Soroco 36; (4-4)
Jan. 15, Soroco 36, Moffat County J.V. 31; (5-4)
Jan. 16, North Park 49, Soroco 40; (5-5)
Jan. 23, Soroco 60, De Beque 29; (6-5)
Jan. 24, Meeker 59, Soroco 39;(6-6)
Jan. 30, Plateau 60, Soroco 49;(6-7)
Feb. 6, West Grand 56, Soroco 50;(6-8)
Feb. 7, Paonia 64, Soroco 51;(6-9)
Feb. 13, Hayden 55, Soroco 39;(6-10)
Feb. 14, Soroco 58, Vail Christian 37;(7-10)
Feb. 21 district play at home sites
Feb. 27-28 districts at Meeker

Game statistics

Rangely 63, Soroco 36

Rangely 18-13-16-16 - 63

Soroco 6-7-11-12 - 36

Rangely - Phelan 7 0-2 14, Hogan 4 0-0 8, Slagle 1 0-0 2, Piering 3 1-2 7, Hayes 9 1-2 19, Wanstedt 1 0-0 2, Morton 4 1-3 9, Coombs 1 0-0 2. Totals 30 3-9 63.

Soroco - George 3 3-6 10, Schlegel 2 0-0 5, S.Miles 2 0-0 5, S.Rossi 5 1-2 11, Maes 0 0-2 0, L.Miles 1 0-0 2, C.Rossi 0 3-4 3. Totals 13 7-14 36.

3-pointers - Soroco (3) - George, Schlegel, S.Miles.

Oak Creek — First-year Soroco High School girls basketball coach David Bruner's plan to turn the program around is to teach his team to shoot the ball more often.

They've been doing a wonderful job in that regard, he said, looking over a stat sheet after Saturday night's game against Rangely.

But the Rams need to start making more of those shots.

Soroco shot plenty but struggled to score and lost to the Panthers at home, 63-36.

"If we shoot well, we could have played with them," Bruner said. "We didn't shoot very well tonight, though."

The Rams' greatest struggles came in the first half. Soroco shot just 16 percent, making five of 31 field goal attempts.

Rangely built an 18-6 lead after one quarter, then made it 31-13 by the end of the second.

Panthers senior Hillary Hayes found plenty of room to work in the paint and scored a game-high 19 points, six in the first quarter and seven in the fourth.

"We are taking good shots. About 95 percent of them are wide open," Bruner said. "We just aren't making shots right now."

Soroco did play better in the second, shooting 25 percent and scoring 23 points.

Senior Sarajane Rossi led the team with 11 points on the night and was effective to open the fourth quarter. She scored three quick baskets, one off a turnover.

Rams freshman Madison George hit a 3-point shot later in the quarter, but that was only enough to pull her team within 20 points. George finished with 10 points.

Traci Schlegel and Shelby Miles each added five.

"Before Christmas, we were averaging 65 shots per game, and we shot 64 against Rangely, so we're consistently shooting the ball the way I tell them," Bruner said. "We're young. We just have to keep working on our shooting, and we'll get better. If we get better at shooting, we can be in a lot of these games."

- To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 871-4253 or e-mail jreichenberger@steamboatpilot.com