CSCS girls put away St. Mary's in fourth

Seniors LeeAnn Routt and Bethany Beck keyed a fourthquarter rally to lift host Colorado Springs Christian School past St. Mary's, 46-39, on Saturday for a berth in the Class 3A state girls basketball quarterfinals.
In the boys final, CSCS defeated Gunnison 55-39 to advance to Thursday's game at Moby Arena in Fort Collins.

In the girls game, Beck scored eight of the Lions' 19 points in the decisive fourth quarter, pulling down three rebounds and blocking a shot for good measure.

Routt scored six in the fourth, shooting 4 of 6 from the free-throw line and had two steals. Her steal and free throws with 1:56 remaining put the Lions ahead for good.
After making the steal, Routt was knocked into the padded wall under the basket.
"It kind of knocked the wind out of me," Routt said. "It was hard to get up."

The Lions (22-2) had trailed the Pirates 30-27 early in the fourth quarter before Beck and Routt each scored to give them the lead, which they never relinquished.
Beck finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. Routt had 12 points, four rebounds, three steals and three assists.

CSCS coach Lisa Guhl was most proud of her defense, which held the Pirates' Christina Whitelaw and senior Julia Saenz to 19 points combined.
"St. Mary's is a tough defensive team, but our's was too," Guhl said. "I think our defense won the game for us."
Whitelaw finished with 11 points and Lauren Kuklenski, Naomi Drobeck and Saenz all scored eight for the Pirates.

The CSCS boys were led by 6-foot-6 senior Matt Baarts, who scored eight of his 20 points in the second quarter to help the Lions open up a 30-13 halftime lead.

With 6-9 post Taylor Broekhuis in foul trouble in the second half, Baarts stepped up his inside game, finishing with 11 rebounds and five blocks.

"I definitely felt the void (of Broekhuis being on the bench) and I had to fill in the post," Baarts said. "It drew my man to come in towards me and that allowed me to get around him and kind of opened up both sides of my game."
Broekhuis finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks despite the foul trouble.
Gunnison coach Marty Roth was more impressed with the CSCS guards' defensive effort.
"Everyone talks about their big guys in the middle," Roth said. "Their perimeter defense is as good as we've seen all year."

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