The 25th annual Steamboat Shootout has taken over the Kelly Meek Gym at Steamboat Springs High School with some of the top high school basketball teams in the state vying for the tournament title. 

Steamboat boys basketball opened the tournament Thursday night with a matchup against Berthoud, ultimately coming out with a tight 45-43 victory to even up their season record at 2-2 heading into Friday. Berthoud fell to 0-3. 

The Sailors held a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter, 44-34, ultimately running into a scoring drought to let the visiting Spartans back into the game. 

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Up just three with 45 seconds to play, head coach Michael Vandahl told his players not to foul and force a tough three on defense. A couple baskets back and forth led to Berthoud down two with one shot at the free throw line. 

The Spartans attempted to ricochet a bullet pass off the backboard for an easy rebound and shot to tie it, but the rebound went into the hands of Steamboat senior Jeffrey Sturges who gathered the ball and launched it down court. The heads-up play drained the remaining seconds off the clock to ice the game in favor of the Sailors. 

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After the game, Vandahl gave kudos to Sturges who he said was the only Steamboat player on the court that had been in a varsity situation like that before. 

“We made a few errors that inexperienced players would make, but I am really proud of our guys,” Vandahl said. “They grinded it out. We are missing (Brandon Kolb) for a while, he hurt his foot, and other guys who can help us. They just had to grind it out and I’m really happy with the way we played defense and that’s the way we’re going to have to be for a while.”

The Sailors continued the tournament into Friday night and are guaranteed another game Saturday against an opponent yet to be determined as of Friday afternoon. Vandahl said the focus through this tournament is to take things one game at a time and gain useful experience against stiff competition. 

“There are no weak teams here,” Vandahl explained. “Berthoud is very athletic so it was good for us to go against that. It is not going to get any easier.”  

Berthoud 43, Steamboat Springs 45
B:    8  15  9  13
SS: 11 15 12  7

Steamboat girls stuffed by Berthoud in home opener

Coming off a massive 51-27 victory over Rifle at a tournament in Roaring Fork last weekend, the Steamboat Springs girls basketball team hosted its home opener Thursday night against a strong Berthoud team. 

The Sailors opened the game on a 6-0 run thanks to the heroics of senior Talyn Anderson who drained two 3-pointers in the opening minutes. 

Scoring became a little more scarce for the Sailors from then on who were down 18 points heading into halftime and ultimately lost the game 65-17. 

The Sailors are now 1-3 on the season heading into Friday night’s game against Windsor Charter Academy with another game scheduled for Saturday against an unannounced opponent. 

Berthoud 65, Steamboat Springs 17
B:   10 18 24 13
SS:  6   4  4   3