Girls' basketball: Mesa Ridge exacts revenge in round of 16

Mesa Ridge turned up its intensity on both ends of the court Saturday and eventually wore down Pueblo West to advance to next weekend’s Class 4A state quarterfinals.

Click here to see a photo gallery from the game.

Forwards Leanndra Gilbert and LaShai Powells led the way with double-doubles as the Grizzlies (23-2) won 75-59.

“Having the rest of my teammates opens things up offensively,” said Gilbert, who had 15 points and 12 rebounds. “I have great teammates who have great hands, and everyone can shoot so that we are not reliant on one player offensively.”

But more often than not — and again Saturday — junior guard Kaitlyn Mileto tops the scoring column. She finished with 20 after managing only four in the first half.

“I wasn’t worried about scoring because my teammates can take over a game,” she said. “I was most concerned with locking down on defense. My defensive assignment had no points at halftime.”

Powells had 18 points and 10 rebounds while point guard Brandi Collins had 14 points, six rebounds and five assists for Mesa Ridge.

“Losing to them early in the season really put a spark under us,” Collins said of a 10-point loss to the fourth-seeded Cyclones (16-9) in December. “We have matured a lot since then, and we knew what we needed to do to beat them. Moving forward, this next game is just another step before we reach our goal.”

Top-seeded Mesa Ridge will play No. 2 Mullen (17-7) on Saturday at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

Grizzlies coach Eric Hulen is simply happy to be done with Pueblo West.

“What we struggled with against Pueblo West was they are small and fast and are a difficult matchup for us,” he said.