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Shaky 1st half dooms Steamboat girls basketball

Luke Graham

— The Steamboat Springs High School girls basketball team couldn’t overcome a slow first half Thursday in the opening game of the Flaming Gorge Classic Basketball tournament, falling to Star Valley, Wyo., 49-45.

“We just didn’t do in that first half the little things right,” said Steamboat coach John Ameen, whose team trailed, 27-18, at halftime. “They got too many offensive rebounds, we weren’t patient on offense, we weren’t in our spots in our press, and we also missed a lot of layups.”

The Sailors started to put things together in the second half. Steamboat started to wear down Star Valley with its press and mounted a comeback.



Steamboat was down, 44-42, with two minutes left in the game. Star Valley extended the lead to 48-45 with less than 20 seconds remaining, but Steamboat couldn’t get a good look off from beyond the 3-point line. Star Valley hit 1-of-2 free throws with six seconds remaining to put the game out of reach.

Gracie Stockdale led Steamboat with 18 points, while Colleen King chipped in 13.



“For us, it’s offensively valuing each possession,” Ameen said. “If you value each possession through the game like you do in the last two minutes, maybe the outcome would be in our favor.”

Ameen said the struggles on offense come from rushing possessions and not working through the plays. The team improved in the second half, and Ameen said he expects that to continue at 8:15 a.m. today when Steamboat plays Green River, Wyo.

Just a week ago at the Steamboat ShootOut, Green River beat Steamboat by 30 points.

Ameen said Green River isn’t 30 points better than Steamboat and said Star Valley was a very similar team.

Ameen said Steamboat will make some adjustments and come out and try to show how much the team has improved.

“We’re looking for a little better result (today),” Ameen said. “It’s doing those little things. If we don’t do those little things (today), it’s going to be a long morning. If we open up and play like we did in the second half, the results are going to be better.”

– To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229

or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com


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