The Dolores Lady Bears (7-5) got contributions across the board in their 66-25 win over Ridgway (2-7) on Friday night.
The Demons finished the first quarter within six points of the visiting Lady Bears, but Dolores broke it open in the second.
“They came out with a really good game plan,” Dolores head coach Larry Schwartz said of Ridgway. “They moved the ball really quick against our press. Then we made a little adjustment after the first quarter and put Aryelle [Wright] up on the ball handler and we just put pressure on the girl so she just couldn’t have an open look down the court. And once we did that our press just started clicking and that’s what broke the game open.”
The Lady Bears used their pressure to turn steals into fastbreak points and held Ridgway to just 12 points for the final three quarters to go on to a 66-25 win.
Senior Nicole Kibel had eight steals on the night, Larissa Umberger swiped six and Wright had five.
“Everybody did something incredible in that game,” said Schwartz. “We had a season-high 17 assists.”
Wright led the team in assists with five and Sierra Schwartz and Kibel had three.
Wright also led the team in scoring with career-high 18 points, Umberger added 16, Tatum Majors scored 11 and Kibel finished with nine.
Following Friday’s win over Ridgway, Dolores took on the Nucla Mustangs (9-3) in what Schwartz called a “slugfest.”
“It was a close game until the fourth quarter when they broke it open,” he explained. “Physically, they had their way with us. We tried to get it up-tempo into a full-court game, but they did a good job and got us in that half-court set stuff and really banged our girls around.”
The Lady Bears trailed 26-24 at half and were down by four at the end of the third, but Nucla used a 20-11 fourth-quarter advantage to pull away with a 57-44 win.
Nucla senior Erin Staats led the Mustangs with 24 points and Taylor Sickels scored 13.
“Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how my girls played even though we lost,” said Schwartz. “They kept the physicality up for three quarters but they just wore us down by the fourth quarter.”
Dolores is now 4-2 in league play, and they’ll look to tally another win in a rivalry game against Mancos (4-5) on Tuesday.
“They got us twice last year,” Schwartz said of the Lady Blue Jays. “Our plan is to go in there and steal one from the rivals and give them a little payback for last year hopefully.”
