COLORADO SPRINGS – The risk of an early exit in the Class 5A girls basketball state tournament can certainly be worth the reward of finding a groove. Pine Creek showed that as they overcame a slow offensive start before finding a groove and beating Brighton 44-28 to open postseason play.
The win puts the No. 19 Eagles in the second round of the tournament where they’ll travel to Fort Collins and take on the Lambkins.
“I’ve already watched a little bit of film on Fort Collins and I’ve looked at their roster,” coach Janean Jubic said. “With their size, we matchup just fine with them and maybe we can go up there and surprise a few people.”
That’s what the No. 46 Bulldogs were looking to do early. They took an early 6-2 lead as the Eagles (15-9 overall) struggled to knock down shots. It wasn’t until late in the first quarter when Kaya Burke-Perryman and Keelin Sills knocked down a 3-pointer each that they started getting into a groove.
From there, the team was a little more consistent in its scoring effort. Burke-Perryman scored a game-high 17 points, connecting on at least one field goal in each quarter.
“I can do a little bit better,” Burke-Perryman said. “I just need to keep the team a little more energy. I really think it’s my defense that gets everything going and as Coach Jubic says, our defense turns into our offense.”
And it’s no coincidence that when the Bulldogs (11-13) got bogged down by Pine Creek’s defense that the Eagles capitalized on offense. The Eagles outscored the Bulldogs 14-4 in the second quarter as Burke-Perryman and Brynae Stewart each scored five points in the quarter.
From there, the Eagles just kept scoring at a steady pace and did so by knocking down mid-range jumpers and 3-pointers rather than attacking the basket. That was by design as Brighton had 6-foot-3 Amanda Byrnes clogging the lane.
“They had a few big girls and I think we were kind of scared to attack,” Stewart said. “Now we know what we need to do to get to the free throw line.”
The Eagles had just four free throw attempts all game with two of them coming late as the game was out of reach for the Bulldogs.
Now the focus turns to the Round of 32 where No. 14 Fort Collins awaits. Jubic likes the fact that her team has been on the court competing and understands that sitting around for nearly a week waiting to play isn’t always a benefit for some teams.
“A lot of people will wait a full week before playing again,” she said. “Their last game could be last Friday and then they’ll wait until this Friday. I don’t love it. I like competing again, I like having a home court game in the first round. I think all of that is excellent for us.”
The Eagles will harness all that energy and momentum as they hit the road to face the Lambkins. By all accounts this should be a competitive game. Douglas County and Pueblo West were common opponents for Pine Creek and Fort Collins this season. They both went 2-0 with Pine Creek winning the two games by a combined 35 points to Fort Collins’ 25.
