Bolstered by the return of senior Nikki Tardif, who’s coming back from a leg injury, the Roaring Fork High School girls basketball team scored a huge win over Meeker in Carbondale Tuesday night, 66-47.
The win not only made up for the Rams first of just two losses on the season (47-40 at Meeker on Jan. 24), it repositioned them to grab at least a share of the 3A Western Slope League (WSL) title.
Roaring Fork led from the start, building a 36-24 halftime lead against the league leaders, and maintaining the intensity behind solid rebounding from Tardif and junior Hazel Jenkins, junior Riley Bevington’s scoring consistency and defensive pressure and a 16-point second half from sophomore Annelise Bumgarner.
“The girls were pretty fired up because we felt, up in Meeker, we didn’t play one of our better games, and of course Nikki had just gotten injured,” head coach Mike Vidakovich said.
“Even Saturday against Gunnison [a 50-26 win for the Rams], where she only played not even half of the game, just having that presence out there, I think it gives everybody else a lot of confidence knowing they have somebody like that in the middle.”
Tardif was stoked to be back on the court after missing four games.
“I’m so grateful that I’m healing,” she said. “I mean, I’m not 100%, but it’ll do for the rest of the season.”
It’s been a few games since the Rams played with as much intensity as they had on Tuesday.
“We were definitely hyped,” Tardif said. “We knew we were going to come in strong and we were just so excited for this game, but we wanted to stay humble. And we were making buckets tonight, which helped us a lot.”
Bevington led the way with 19 points, followed by Bumgarner’s and Tardif’s 18 each. Jenkins finished with eight points.
The Rams also defeated Olathe, 59-19, on the road Feb. 5, to go undefeated over the last four games and improve to 17-2 overall and 9-2 in the WSL, behind only North Fork.
Vidakovich said he’ll stack up the 3A league teams against the 4A and 5A teams on the Western Slope any day.
“This league is tough,” he said. “The 4A and 5A teams in this area I don’t think would finish in the upper half of the 3A Western Slope.”
The Rams have a week off before getting a chance to prove their worth against one of those 4A teams, a Feb. 17 date at Rifle.
Roaring Fork boys down Meeker
Meanwhile, the league-leading Rams boys faced a fired up Meeker Cowboys team in the Tuesday nightcap, falling behind 16-10 after the first eight minutes of play and trailing by one, 28-27, at halftime.
A spirited crowd, including a large contingent of Meeker fans, kept the Rams Gymnasium rocking. Roaring Fork eventually built a double-digit lead in the second half, pulling away for the 68-48 win.
Seniors Lucas Carballeira, Kiko Pena and Ryder Tezanos finished with 27, 16 and 11 points, respectively.
The Rams stay undefeated at 9-0 in league play and are 16-2 overall, coming into the week with a 3A state ranking of eighth.
Last week and over the weekend, Roaring Fork defeated Olathe 86-52 on Feb. 5 and Gunnison 70-34 on Feb. 7.
Against Olathe, it was Carballeira with 22 points, Pena with 19 points and 14 rebounds, and Tezanos with 14 points.
And at home against Gunnison, Carballeira had 25 points, including five three-pointers, and Quentin Galbraith had 14. Pena had 12 rebounds.
Girls swimming state bound
The combined Glenwood Springs-Roaring Fork-Basalt girls swim team took second place (first among class 3A teams) at the WSL championships in Grand Junction last weekend.
Top 10 swimmers in their respective events at the league meet: Ellie Rippy, seventh 50 Freestyle; Sylvia Duchscher, third 100 Free and sixth 200 Free; Isla Friel, sixth 100 Breaststroke; Maya Valean, 10th 500 Free; 200 Free Relay (Duchscher, Rippy, Vespera Steiner, Mazy McEwan), third; 200 Medley Relay (Ainsley Taucher, Friel, Duchscher, Rippy), seventh; 400 Free Relay (Taucher, Steiner, Summer Ducio, Isabella Bier Mobius), sixth.
Several members of the team will be representing at the 3A State Swimming and Diving Championships in Thornton this Friday and Saturday. They are:
Duchscher – 100 and 200 Freestyle
Steiner – 50 Freestyle
Valean – 500 Freestyle
Taucher – 100 Backstroke
Friel – 100 Breaststroke
Claire Hardaker – Unified Athlete 50 Freestyle
200 and 400 Free Relays