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Mesa Ridge girls ahead of rebuilding schedule
Grizzlies down rival Widefield in typical low-scoring fashion
Mesa Ridge is on a roll. Don’t tell the sophomore-heavy team that it wasn’t expected to do this well.
After reaching the semifinals of last season’s 4A playoffs, the Grizzlies lost five seniors, including Kaitlyn Mileto who is averaging more than 33 minutes at Wyoming, and coach Eric Hulen.
First-year coach Jeff Beatty has the Grizzlies (12-7, 8-2 Metro League), 50-40 winners at Widefield on Tuesday, playing with a real confidence.
That confidence really blossomed in a win over Sierra.
“Right around when we played Sierra at home, that’s when we knew our chemistry was going to be good throughout the season,” said leading-scorer Gabby Purnell, part of last season’s squad. “We played as a team. Everybody contributed points.”
The team’s top three scorers are all sophomores, yet no one averages double digits. Entering Tuesday’s game, Purnell (8.5 points per game), Samantha Rudd (7.6) and Tiffani Jackson (5.8) led in scoring for a team that was averaging just 49.3 points.
“I don’t think it’s a big deal that we’re leading it,” said Rudd, who scored a game-high 20 Tuesday and was part of last season’s semifinalists. “Because we were on varsity last year, so we’re kind of carrying it over. We’re a 12-man-deep bench, and all of our players have talent.”
Purnell, the point guard who runs the offense, does a bit of everything. That’s part of her job, and she and Rudd have the responsibility of guiding the rest of the squad.
“(With) our seniors ... gone we have to all contribute,” Purnell said. “Rudd and I coming back from being on varsity, we knew that we had to step up and contribute in every game and help our players out.”
With a low-scoring team, a lot of those wins can be attributed to defense. The Grizzlies average 14 steals and nabbed another 15, including eight in the third quarter, against the Gladiators (10-10, 5-7). How much does Beatty stress defense?
“A lot, a lot, a lot, a lot,” Rudd said. “That’s all we practice, defense, defense, defense.”
Despite their youth, they showed they understand how to exploit a team’s weakness. With Widefield post Angie Smith out injured, the Grizzlies kept feeding Rudd inside.
Continuing to learn and adapt can carry this team.
“I think we can make it as far as we did last year if we keep it up,” said Rudd, who also hit her first 3 of the season. “We’re putting in a lot of hard work. I believe if we keep going and working hard in practice we’ll be able to make it all the way.”
