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Tigers too much for host Glenwood

Jeff Caspersen
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
Kelley Cox Post Independent
ALL |

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado – Fundamentals are a major component of winning basketball. And fundamentals were precisely what Glenwood Springs’ girls basketball team lacked in a 53-44 loss to visiting Grand Junction on Thursday.

The Demons’ biggest issue: Taking care of the basketball. Glenwood finished the night with 24 turnovers.

“I think we could have done better,” Glenwood coach Bryan Derby said. “We had a lot of turnovers. But, again, we’re a young team. I haven’t really taught them a lot of the fundamentals. We were trying to ride with what we had. Fundamentals is where it’s at. That’s what we lacked tonight. We’ll go back to the drawing board.”



Still, Derby’s Demons made a game of it against the Class 5A Tigers.

After falling behind by as many as 18 points in the third quarter, 4A Glenwood roared back with a 13-6 run to start the fourth quarter that sliced the deficit to six with 1 minute, 26 seconds remaining. But Grand Junction scored five of the game’s final seven points to seal a win in its season opener.



“I was proud of them at the end of the game,” Tigers coach Sam Provenza said. “When Glenwood was coming back, they weathered that storm. They bowed their heads a little bit and did a nice job of finishing the game.”

Junior forward Fawn Brady poured in a team-high 16 points for the Tigers. Sophomore guard Jamie Derrieux chipped in with 13 points and junior forward Paula Lage finished with eight. The 5-foot-11 Lage added six rebounds, three assists and four steals.

Junior guard Kenzie Kuhn kept the Demons (1-1) afloat much of the night. Her eight fourth-quarter points – six coming on 3-pointers – contributed to her game-high 23 points.

Backcourt mate Cassidy Gaddis, a sophomore, netted 10 points for Glenwood, which had trouble finding passing lanes in the face of Grand Junction’s matchup zone defense.

“They just came out strong. I think that we hadn’t seen that kind of defense before,” Kuhn said. “We forgot how to do the little things. I think it’s just fundamentals.”

Kuhn and her Demon teammates will polish those fundamentals between now and Tuesday, when they’ll travel to face Grand Junction Central.

“[Friday], we’ll go to practice and work on fundamentals,” Kuhn said. “We’ll work on dribbling, getting in the passing lanes, everything.”

jcaspersen@postindependent.com


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