Chante Church led a balanced effort as Rifle’s girls basketball team opened the 3A Western Slope League district tournament with a 53-32 win over visiting Hotchkiss on Tuesday.

Ashley Rickstrew and Joey Kuheim added 12 points apiece for the Bears, who improved to 17-3 overall and will face Grand Valley at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the semifinals at Palisade High School.

The Bulldogs hung around for much of the night, but Rifle charged out of the gate in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“We made a big run,” Bears coach Stephanie Heald said. “We got up by about 20 points finally. It’s something we needed.”

The Bears have struggled on offense of late, so Tuesday’s fourth-quarter awakening was a sight for Heald’s sore eyes.

“I’m OK with how we’ve been playing defense, but offensively we’ve been rushing a lot of shots,” she said. “Our shooting has to get better.”

Jumping out to a 35-7 halftime lead, Grand Valley coasted to a 48-23 win over visiting Coal Ridge in Tuesday’s 3A WSL district tourney opener.

“We played excellent defensively,” Cardinals coach Mike Johnson said. “Our defense led to our offense. We were very aggressive early. We just got after them and played a very, very good game.”

Ashlynn Speakman paced Grand Valley (11-9) with 11 points. Kristen Schubert chipped in with eight points, the same total posted by Ashley Radel

Grand Valley will face Rifle in Friday’s semifinals at Palisade High School.

Coal Ridge (10-10) moves to the consolation side of the bracket and will host Hotchkiss Thursday night at 6 p.m.