Dolores, Mancos get ready to battle at Regionals to see who goes to State

Dolores, Mancos get ready to battle at Regionals to see who goes to State

Mar. 1, 2001

BY JIM THOMAS
Sports Editor

GRAND JUNCTION — Two area high school basketball teams will travel to Grand Junction on Friday, March 2, in preparation for Regional Tournament play on Saturday, with one goal in mind: To win there and earn the right to compete in next week’s Class 2A State Basketball Tournament in Pueblo, March 8-10.

Undefeated Dolores girls (22-0) take on West Grand (14-5) beginning at 1 p.m. while Mancos (13-7) battles North Park (16-6) at 3:15 p.m. at the Grand Junction High School Gym. Only the winner of those games will get to advance to State. Tickets for Regionals are $5 for adults and $4 for seniors and students.

Dolores, under the direction of first-year head coach Rob Mellott, has the girls playing very well right now. The Bears, who won the San Juan Basin League title outright, breezed through last weekend’s District III Basketball Tournament by beating Mancos 59-46 in the semifinals and Nucla 59-50 in the finals.

Mellott will probably start 5-foot-7 senior guard Amber Simmons, 5-9 junior guard Jennifer Trevillian, 5-11 junior forward Amanda Cross, 5-8 sophomore guard Joni Everett, and 5-7 guard Sarah Nielson. Others on the team include 5-7 senior post Jessica Gladem, 6-0 senior post Krysten Fitzgerald, 5-9 junior post Ashley Smith, 5-7 sophomore guard Jennifer Cross, 5-8 sophomore guard Tracy Everett, 5-8 sophomore guard Ashley Reed, and 5-9 freshman guard McKenzie Reed. Mellott is assisted by Lenea McCluhan.

He reported the team is not going to do anything unusual in preparation for West Grand, just "work on what has gotten us this far."

Trevillian is averaging 17.4 points per game and dishing out 7.1 assists. Amanda Cross has pulled down 157 rebounds, Joni Everett 143, Tracy Everett 124 and Ashley Reed 108 so far this season.

Like the Bears, who have the Cross, Reed and Everett sisters, the Mustangs also have a lot of sisterhood. Jessica and Shonda Brown, Camden and Mandy Eller, and Nicole and Deb Thompson all see time on the varsity. Shonda Brown is averaging 12.7 points per game while Jessica Brown is averaging 11.8 per outing. The Mustangs like to set the ball and work the ball into Hannah Sheehan, who is averaging 17.6 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.

However, West Grand High School out of Kremmling has had some problems lately. The Mustangs have lost three of their last four games including dropping a 38-29 decision to Soroco in the finals of the District V Tournament last weekend.

Last year, the Mancos High School girls varsity basketball advanced to Regionals. This year it’s the Mancos boys’ turn.

The Blue Jays finished as the runner-up team in the San Juan Basin League and finished as the runner-up team in the District III Tournament this past weekend. The Jays defeated Mancos 78-58 in the semifinals but didn’t look sharp in falling 73-47 to Nucla in the finals.

"We’re not going to try to do anything different against North Park than what we’ve done all year," Hill said. "When you play a team like Dolores three times, you can do something a little different like we did in the semifinals of the (District III) tournament. We will keep it simple. We will just go back to what we’ve been doing all season that has brought us success."

Hill said he doesn’t really know too much about North Park.

"All I know is they will push on offense and they like to use half-court traps on defense," he reported. "I don’t think they are real deep (after their starting five) and I don’t think they are real tall (only one player 6-foot-2). If we come ready to play and cut down our mistakes, I think we’ve got a pretty good chance."

Hill will start his normal lineup of 5-9 sophomore point guard Clint Hill, 6-1 junior guard Kyle Yeomans, 6-4 senior forward-post Bill Baker, 6-2 junior forward Travis Clark, and 6-0 senior forward Jesse Rousset. Coming off the bench will be 5-9 sophomore Chase Davis, 5-11 freshman Kent Russell, 5-11 sophomore Preston Hennrich, 5-10 junior Nick Rubino, 6-2 sophomore Kelley Smith, and 6-4 junior Ryan Shepherd. Rousset is averaging 15.5 points per game.

North Park has a 16-6 overall record and has won six straight including nipping West Grand 51-50 in the finals of the District V Tournament last weekend. The Wildcats are led by Brett Kaup, Chris Lance, John Irvine, and Ty Robben. Kaup will needed to be contained. He is averaging 21.0 points per game while Lance is scoring 14.8.

Tickets are available on a walk-up basis only for the Class 2A State Tournament at the Events Center box office in Pueblo at the State Fairgrounds. Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for students and seniors except for the finals when tickets increase by $1.