ARVADA — Arvada West’s girls basketball team joined the elite group of double-digit win squads Monday night.
The Wildcats (10-1 record) became the fifth Class 6A girls team with 10 wins on the season with a dominating 51-26 victory over Green Mountain. A-West hit 10 3-pointers on the night to extend its winning streak to 6 games.
“This is a team that can score in all different manners,” A-West senior co-captain Brooke Meeks said. “Every person on this team can score in different ways. That is why we are really deep this year and people aren’t really expecting that.”
Sophomore Saylor Swanson led the Wildcats with 12 points, including three 3-pointers. Junior Malorie Byrne contributed 10 points. Seniors Ellie Pugliese and Meeks finished with eight points each.
“Honestly it doesn’t surprise me,” A-West coach Brady Meeks said of five different players combining for the 10 3-pointers. “I feel like out of my top eight kids, six can all shoot the 3-ball.”
The Wildcats went on an 11-0 run to open up a double-digit lead of 27-9 midway through the second quarter. A-West’s biggest lead came when Swanson make a driving layup late in the third quarter to give the Wildcats a 44-14 lead.
Defensively, A-West’s focus was clearly and not surprisingly on Green Mountain senior Jayda Maves. The Western Colorado University commit was coming off a 34-point game against Golden that was played at Ball Arena on Jan. 5.
“We knew she (Maves) was coming off a really good game and was going to be hot,” said Brooke, daughter of Coach Meeks. “She is the majority of their team when it comes to points. We knew if we could stop her their team would start crumbling.”
Brooke said the goal for the Wildcats defensively was to hold Maves to 15 points. The senior guard was held to 14 points. Maves came in averaging 22.9 points per game.
“It definitely was a focus,” Coach Meeks said of Maves. “I was confident with the couple of kids (Sara Walker and Kristin Lee) I put on her to do a good job and everyone else knew they better be ready help. I was proud of both Sara and Kristin. They did a great job containing her.”
Green Mountain (6-4, 1-0 in Class 5A/4A Jeffco League) had hopped back into the CHSAANow.com Class 5A rankings today at No. 9 thanks to its 6-game win streak. The Rams were No. 5 in the preseason poll after three straight trips to the 4A state semifinals in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Green Mountain gets back into 5A/4A Jeffco play on Wednesday. The Rams head up to Conifer for a girls/boys varsity doubleheader. The girls’ game will tipoff at 5:30 p.m. The Rams return home Friday to face Standley Lake.
A-West has one last non-conference game before jumping into 6A Jeffco League play. The Wildcats face Heritage on the road Wednesday before opening conference play against rival Ralston Valley on Friday.
“Hopefully we go into league 11-1,” Brooke said of hitting the road Wednesday before the first of two showdowns with rival Ralston Valley during conference play. “I think we are really excited. I think we are ready to go because a lot of people see us as an underdog.”
No. 8 ranked Ralston Valley in 6A will host the girls/boys varsity doubleheader that begins at 5:30 p.m. with the girls’ game.
“Every league game is important,” Coach Meeks said. “Obviously, they are our cross-town rival and have been an Elite 8 program for the last decade. When I stepped in here five years ago my goal was to be like Ralston Valley in girls basketball. We have been trying to make that climb.”
Coach Meeks takes full blame for last year’s 38-15 home loss to the Mustangs last year.
“Last year was on me,” Coach Meeks said. “I tried to make ourselves something we weren’t offensively. Our defense was fantastic holding that team to 38 points, but you score 15 points … I had our girls thinking too much instead of just playing basketball. That was all me.”